Member-only story
12 Best Practices to Online Dating as a Single Parent
Dating in general, and online dating in particular, requires a slightly different approach when you’re a single parent.
Single parents deal with lot of anxiety, fear, doubt, and guilt when it comes to dating. Is it too soon? How will the kids feel? Is it wrong to take away from what little time we have with the kids to date? Should we tell the ex or not? Online dating or hope to meet someone naturally?
There comes a point where you need to just dive in and do it. You can’t keep seeking answers to all your questions because the only real way to find those answers is to start dating and see what happens.
While there are certainly arguments against online dating, I do think it can be an ideal solution for a single parent. With traditional dating, you have to go on first dates to even determine if you like someone enough to go on more dates. This can lead to feeling like you wasted time and missed out on the kids when a date doesn’t go well.
With online dating, however, you can get to know someone a bit before you go out. You don’t need a babysitter, or to leave the kids or get all dressed up to chat online. And those chats online allow you to quickly weed out those that aren’t right for you.
