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Dating With Kids: 8 Deal Breakers Single Parents Should Look For
Dating when you have kids requires adding a few things to your list of reasons to walk away.
Dating as a single parent isn’t that much different from dating when you were just single. You go on (most) dates alone with the person you’re seeing. You get to know each other over time. You decide to date exclusively or part ways. You go to movies, dinner, or parties.
But now that you have kids, you also keep your cell phone in hand, checking now and then to see if the sitter has called. You cancel the occasional date because the sitter cancels or a kid gets sick. You might go home a little earlier or drink a little less.
There is one big difference, though. That big difference is you no longer evaluate a potential partner based solely on how you feel about them. You consider your kids and how they feel too. And while that might not seem like a huge difference at first, once you start actively dating, you become aware of just how big it truly is.
You’ve always had your own list of deal breakers. No smokers, no addicts, no former convicts… whatever your deal breakers were before you had kids still apply. But now it’s time to add a few more.