Dating & Over-Protective Parents

Living with your parents got you down? Trying to date while living with your parents got you down even more?

Worse yet, got over-protective parents trying to "help"?

Here are some well-equipped answers for the timely questions from the parental interrogators. Just memorize and respond. And then escape out the door while they're still recovering from shock....

The classic: what are you going to do?

Possible answers: 1) Strip naked and dance on cars in the parking lot. (The less likely you are to actually do this, the more effective the answer.) 2) Pick up the rowdiest drunk at the bar and elope. Did the two of you have a name preference? (Shock and awe.) 3) Going to go study at the library. (This is more effective if you've been out of school for a few years or aren't the studying type anyway.) 4) The red light district. (Of course, this one may have them waiting up for you.)

The delivery: pure seriousness. No smiling, no joking tone. The more dead-pan the delivery, the greater the impact.

Another classic: who are you going out with?

1) Jack the Ripper. (Of course they know you don't mean this one.) 2) Some guy from myspace.com (or insert other website-this one will raise eyebrows.) 3) This guy who's been following me around town. I don't know his name. 4) Should I ask him for a copy of his resume for you? (Be prepared, they might answer yes.)

Delivery: just make sure they don't end up calling the cops thinking you're in serious danger.

And then, when will you be back?

1) Well, if it goes really well, I won't. If it's a lousy date I'll see you in a few hours. 2) Sometime next year. 3) After we load up his/her stuff and pack his/her clothes, we'll both be home. 4) After the baby's born.

Again, seriousness will work wonders. Temporarily.

The big key is to drop your reply and leave before they recover enough to ask more questions. All you're after, really, is to get out of the house without the hassle of the parental interrogation. Understand that some answers lead to more questions - later. So be ready for the heart felt apology or explanation. And when they ask why you answered the way you did, tell them the truth - you an adult and don't appreciate having to explain all of your actions and whereabouts as if you were still 12 years old.