The first date

There has been some debate over whether a person invited on their first date should pay. A friend of mine’s son did the right thing of treating his first date to dinner and a show, setting him back £200. In the interval his date was busy texting and at the end of the evening left him high and dry to join her brother at another restaurant, leaving him rather disconsolate to take the late night bus home to cut his losses. My advice to him was your first loss is your best loss and do not take her out again.

A girl I know who does some secretarial and p/a work had interesting views upon this issue. She said she went to a sushi restaurant on a date. The invitor asked before the bill whether he was going to sleep with her. She said no. “In which case you can pay half” he suggested, which she did. She found the incident funny and so did I. It’s some time since I went on my first date, to see The Importance of Being Earnest, a play recently reviewed on the Rust, I am sure I bought the tickets. One thing I do remember from those days, when you could go out with a girl for 6 months and both remain virgins at the beginning and at the end, was not having much money and carefully calculating the ordering in a restaurant. Thus, when my children go for their first date, I always ensure that in the case of my step son he has no financial concerns and in the case of my daughter enough for a taxi should it turn nasty.