9 Surprising Things About Dating As a Single Parent

If you thought dating as a single parent would be the same as dating without kids, think again.

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

Out of my 19 years as a mother, I’ve spent 16 of them as a single mom. While I’ve had some long periods of not dating, that’s also a lot of years of dating as a single mom.

Dating as a single parent doesn’t seem all that different from dating as a single person with no kids. But children do put an interesting twist on things.

Lots of single parents won’t date other single parents

You might think that single parents would be eager to date another single parent. After all, they face the same difficulties, so they understand your situation. But many single parents don’t want to date another single parent for exactly that reason. They know how difficult it can be, and they don’t want to double the trouble.

Many single parents feel it’s easier to date someone without kids because their schedule is more open, allowing them to be more flexible with the single parent’s often inflexible schedule. While this can be a good strategy, it can also lead to problems because the person without kids doesn’t understand where the single parent is coming from when it comes to their…