I've actually thought a lot about this one with regards to DH. If there is a correlation, I think it has more to do with internal boundaries (personal) than external ones (rules).
I was allowed to have boyfriends and to date pretty freely since I was 14 or 15, but I didn't lose my virginity until I was almost 22 a couple weeks before graduation (ack!! confession!!). DH, on the other hand was "not allowed" to date until he was 18 and still he became active at 15 and M was not even his first and he ended up married the day after his 18th bday (when he would technically have been allowed to date
). ...Ugh, I'm trying to word this in a way that doesn't sound like I think I was any better than him or anyone...not at all. Just that it was a combination of factors that had little to do with the rules around our dating.
And yeah, I had a couple praying-over-the-little-stick-moments, one of them much scarier than the other.
Everytime my MIL freaks out that we allowed J to date (somewhere in between both our upbringings), reminding me that her boys were not allowed to date until they were 18, I'm tempted to say "And how did that work out for ya?"
