I guess it had to happen sooner or later, but I never really thought about how to handle it. My mom has started to date online. My mom, the same person who can barely figure out how to check her email without my help. My mom, who couldn’t understand a recipe is dating online. To top it off, she’s joined the same dating site as me, too. Words can’t describe the embarrassment of her coming across my profile photo. And she’s always telling me who I should be contacting, and who I should ignore, too. Well mom, I’ve been going at this for longer than you, so if you’re serious on following my path, I have a few suggestions for you.
First of all, while it’s nice that you have hobbies, I don’t think it works very well to show something other than you in your profile photo. People want to see what you look like, you know. Picking a profile picture doesn’t have to be that hard, though. As long as the picture is actually you and it’s recent (and not from five years ago), there shouldn’t be any problems. Potential suitors might be confused if you’re pictured as blond, but appear as a redhead in person, so make sure it’s as accurate to who you are at the moment.
Never give away any personal information, such as your phone number, until you feel comfortable doing so. If they try to pressure you, fight it. Use caution and common sense. Not everybody in the world is trustworthy, mom, and some might have some less than honorable intentions. Dating online, especially when you haven’t been introduced through mutual friends in an offline setting, makes it harder to tell.
This isn’t the old fashioned way of courting, mom, keep this in mind. This isn’t like in high school when the shy aw-shucks boy comes walking up to you between classes and asks you to the dance. You aren’t meeting at the local bowling alley with a group of friends. In fact, you might not meet for months. And when you do meet, it’s a good idea to choose a public place and bring a friend or family member with you to be safe. If you can’t do that, have somebody call halfway through the date to see if everything is OK.
Follow these steps, mom, and maybe one of these days we can go on a double date. Well, perhaps not. That would be kind of weird.
