I've turned pro, it happened overnight. And I have my mother to thank.

Mum decided to dish out the story of when she and my father met. Back in the good old days of Generation X (assuming then, I'm of the 'But Y, we use KY' Generation), they didn't go about copulation like we do nowadays, as we're well aware.

Technology aside — instant chat, texting… — our 'rents did get a few things right back in the '70s.

'Why do you date exclusively?' asked my ever-enquiring Madre. I predict she asks these questions to determine a bottom-line conclusion, along the lines of whether I use protection or not, which I assure you, I always do.

Back in 1969 — and mum is a classy sort of bird — she didn't hang out and play Nintendo Wii and drink beer from the can with a prospective hunk of spunk.

Dated a number of suitors

Nay, nay. Whether he was James Dean, or just a studly neighbour, boys back then didn't dare ask a chick over for soccer and Amstel. They went on dates.

And while she dated James Dean, she also dated Rodney Perkins and Victor Trilby at the same time. It was the done thing — you dated a number of suitors, even throughout the heady stuponic days of varsity, until you decided with whom to get serious, and therefore exclusive.

Maybe this is the reason why so many budding relationships fizzle out, thirty years later?

Men would court her, and even if she liked one more than the other, or even if the one she had a bull's eye painted on him, and he asked her on anything resembling a pseudo-date, she'd decline.

Hanging out with him and his mates, or doing coffees, wasn't coined a 'date'. Mum did coffees with her digs mates. There was an integral dating standard in the '60s and '70s. Yes, even amongst Free Love and LSD.

She did the rounds, like all her friends, frequenting more restaurants than Nigella Lawson on a mission to find the best artichoke in town.

The one socio-climatic issue of course, is as lovely as this all sounds, being wined and dined by men you don't call a boyfriend until you start sleeping with them, is that times have changed.

So you find yourself often getting to know someone only properly when it's too late, and you're in too deep.

Make no mistake, I do dinners. Lots of them. The time period though, is always finite, disappointingly finite.

Nowadays, you go somewhere where alcohol is served, because guy and dolls have lost their nerves somewhat, smooch in the parking lot, or maybe take them home for a sleepover after too much red wine. Maybe you'll go for a few more dinners, but then suddenly you find yourself locked down in a relationship you might not want to be in.

Is courting naff or sensible?

We’ve been doing it since university, why stop now? Bad habits are hard to break. But what if I could do it like my mother?

What if I were to turn professional? No more hanging out, hanging it out, greying the boundaries between dating and non-dating because casual in the 2000's, is key?

Turning professional would mean dating a bunch of boys at once, it would involve dinner at night time (no lunches, breakfasts, or activities I otherwise do with executives), and no commandeering of dubious sack activities until I decide to go exclusive with one man.

How hard can it be? Chivalry may be dead, but if I happen to say, 'Look, thanks for the offer — I'd love to watch rugby with you and your brother, but unfortunately I have 8000 invitations to that already, however I am open for dinner at some point'. Would that be so bad?

Basically, is courting naff?

Maybe it is, but it worked for my matriarch. Fellas picked her up, dropped her off at home (with perhaps a fully-clothed snog in the front seat afterwards), and knew their limits.

When she met my dad — they're divorced now, but that's not the point — she eventually, after getting to know him through the medium of menus and three course meals decided, "Fine, fine, I'll be your girlfriend and let the others go".

Old fashioned trysts and traditional rituals are often there to create boundaries for us naturally anarchic human beings, which perhaps isn't a bad guideline to go on — at least for a while, until I meet Hugh Jackman in person, that is.

Bad idea or way to go? What do you think about not dating exclusively? Add your comments below