I was condescending on purpose. I don’t think teenagers should be on this site- talking and flirting with grown men. It turns my stomach, actually.
I think teenagers should be socializing with other teenagers. It is unhealthy for teens to be online all the time talking to adult men. Teens should stay in their lane. Just like adults should stay in their lane.
While I agree that flirting between teenagers and adults is inappropriate (in any context!), I see absolutely nothing wrong with teenagers hanging out here... better here among Christians than among worldly teenagers who know nothing of value! After all, this isn't a dating site.
By the way, are you aware that your nickname is also the name of a chain of lingerie stores? If you didn't, fair enough, but I think it's inappropriate for someone to come on a Christian chat site with the equivalent of "Victoria's Secret" as her nick, and then complain about teenagers being present. Perhaps you could model and encourage godly behaviour rather than criticize her and push her away from people from whom she may learn.
La Vie En,
I hope I can bring this up in a sensitive way, but you have stated publicly many times on the forum that your dating preference is for a much older age range. I understand that there is a vast difference between a teenager and a grown woman with a professional career, but I am also assuming that your dating preference means that you would regularly socialize with a group of people who are several decades older than your own age?
You are also an obviously highly intelligent and well-educated woman, so I would also assume that you wouldn't want to be treated condescendingly among the very people you were trying to establish a place with, even if they are 20 and 30 years older than you are. Surely you would hope to find some sort of acceptance and encouragement from these people, rather than having them purposely try to drive you away by constantly talking down to you?
Now granted, I'm not trying to sound like a hypocrite, as I know I've said some things that could come across as very critical as well. For instance, I may be out of my league, but I try to encourage the younger people here to look at things from a wider perspective, and I know I need to remember that for myself as well. I also encourage anyone of any age who feels that there aren't enough "interesting" threads to take the initiative and start contributing such threads on their own.
I agree with you that we as adults should be cautious about how we treat our younger brothers and sisters, but WineRose hasn't acted in a flirtatious manner here on the threads, and maybe her presence is God telling us all to make way for the younger generation.
I have a family member the same age as Rose, and it's made me realize that maybe I've been a bit too narrow-minded in my thinking.
At one point, I had wanted to write a series of Get-To-Know-Each-Other threads topped off with another matchmaking thread bonanza, but maybe... that's just not the purpose God has for us in Singles right now. Now, I'm certainly not saying that a matchmaking thread is something you would have personally condoned or promoted--those are just my own crazy wheels spinning in action--but what I'm trying to say is that maybe what God really wants for Singles is to be more of a place of Godly examples and encouragement.
We'll never be able to keep all the teens out of Singles (just as we'll never be able to keep all the adults out of the Teen and Young Adults forums), but at least we can work on making it a positive, edifying experience, as Dino has pointed out.
