My Daughter Started Online Dating. This Is What I Told Her.
My daughter is twenty-four, which is a normal age to still be single in today’s society. However, most of her friends from school have already gotten married and are having babies. This makes my daughter feel like she is the exception to the rule, when in fact all her friends are the current exception. Nevertheless, she really has her heart set on getting married soon. She feels she is getting old. Old?! Oh, how I wish to be twenty-four again! That’s when thirty felt “old”.
Because my daughter teaches school, she is in a career where most of her colleagues are female. This makes it harder to try to meet someone at work. I’m sure she had hoped she would meet her husband while she was in college, but that just didn’t happen for her. She was always very focused on her studies and wanted to make the best grades. She graduated with a 4.0. Not only is my daughter very intelligent, she is also very attractive. She has long, auburn hair and stunning, blue eyes. I know she feels like something is wrong with her because she is still not in a committed relationship, but the truth is she would be an amazing catch for any man.
So I suggested my daughter try online dating. Now, I know there can be a lot of creeps in today’s world, who lie and deceive people on the internet. So I suggested she try a more reliable website, one with some security features and one that would help her find someone who has common interests and values. I also knew this was an expense she had not planned for, so I offered to cover half the cost each month.
I thought I would also try to help her with her profile. I did a little research on the internet about online dating, and then we set to work. We made sure she wrote an opening tagline that would make a guy curious to know more. We also picked out three photos of her; one was a work photo taken for the yearbook, one was a picture of her with no make-up on (but she still looked beautiful), and one was a photo of her as a bridesmaid, all dressed up. We made sure her profile included things that were truly important to her, her values, and not just her preferences. When it was all finished, I felt, as her mother, that it painted a perfect picture of my daughter. I think it was important that I helped her with her profile because it can often be very daunting to try to describe ourselves as others see us.
Since my daughter posted her online profile, she has gone on four first dates. After the most recent lunch date, she is thinking she has found someone worth investing more time. Hopefully after a few more dates, I’ll be inviting him over to dinner at my house!
Mary-Ellen Catalano is a contributor to several fashion, family and lifestyle web sites. Among the topics she writes about are Boston singles dating and Dating cowboys online.
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