He is debonair and sexy, and he asks you out on a date.
The excitement in you is palpable as you anticipate meeting him for an official date.
Every day leading to the date is filled with questions in your mind.
Will we get along, laugh, and have romantic chemistry?
The excitement is palpable.
Nevertheless, it finally gives way to a question you wrestle with whenever you are about to go out on a date with a man you are really into.
Who should pay for the date?
You want to demonstrate you are your own person and an independent woman.
Yet, you also want to feel like the princess.
The one who is sought after and courted.
To experience this, you would have to play the role of the traditional woman.
Yet, you are a modern woman.
One with a good education, professional career, goals, etc.
This puts you in a quagmire.
You want to convey that you are a strong, independent woman, and yet, you crave traditional treatment in dating and courtship.
With the evolution of our society into one that is more equal between the sexes, it makes it harder to figure out how to address certain age-old traditions.
As much as you want to have the freedom that modern society has afforded women, whether it be in education, career, life goals, etc., you continue to hold on to a traditional mindset in relation to dating and courtship.
It is unnecessary to dwell too much on this conundrum.
There is nothing unusual about having a combination of modern and traditional values.
The good news is that there are plenty of men who share the same mindset.
They have a modern mindset while harboring traditional values in other areas such as dating and courtship.
Men are genetically designed and raised to have a protector and provider mindset.
To this end, lots of men continue to believe and adhere to a traditional role in dating and courtship.
This is a man who wants to pay for the date.
A traditional man who financially invests in a courtship feels better about fulfilling his role as the protector and provider.
That said, if he is paying for dates, he expects you to play the traditional role in turn.
Meaning, you are deferring to him and respecting the decisions he makes in the courtship process.
Basically, you are letting him lead and playing the part.
This is what makes for a successful courtship despite the fact that you are a woman living in a modern world.
Where things go bad is when he is being traditional in paying for dates and you aren’t playing the traditional role.
This is where you question his decisions and second-guess his leadership.
If you choose to play the traditional role in courtship, you have to be consistent and sincere.
This is how you create a synergy between you two.
Without this synergy, the interaction is one-sided, which is a recipe for failure in the courtship process.