A Mature Approach to Dating
Posted on 28. Nov, 2009 by Jack in Lifestyle, Relationships and Dating
Here’s a bit of good news for anyone out there who is single, over 50 and feeling desperately alone in the world… you’re not. There are plenty of fish just like you out there in that virtual sea. A report published this month in Stella magazine revealed that the 55 plus age group was the most active when it came to online dating.
The findings by YouGov highlighted snippets which might be of interest to Sparklers. Some discoveries were pretty much what you’d expect, some were quite revealing and a couple were real eyebrow raisers.
This is Sparkle’s summary of the juiciest bits.
Why do people want to date?
This was pretty even between men and women when it came to looking for a long term relationship, to socialise and for companionship. The only big difference was when the reason was to have sex. Only 22% of women cited this compared to 50% of men. The big surprise was that it was only 50%.
Most important quality
Both intelligence and having a sense of humour were important to everyone, but having financial solvency was more important to women than men, and being physically attractive was more important to men than women.
Ideal activity for a first date
Sit up and take notice Sparklers, we’re all agreed on this one. Top choice is to meet for a drink with the next most popular being to go for a meal. So head over to the discussion page on Facebook and find out who likes to eat what. A little tip for the guys out there; taking a prospective Miss Right to a footie match as a first date is a serious no-no.
Perfect age of a date
Surprise, surprise the ideal date for a quarter of the men interviewed would be up to five years younger. For women it would be up to five years older. Actually, that balances out quite nicely.
What is important to you?
Size apparently does matter. Three quarters of women thought it was important that their dates were taller than them – makes you wonder if people like Tom Cruise and Al Pacino would ever have got it together with anyone if they weren’t rich and famous. Funnily enough a high percentage of men thought that being taller than their date was important as well.
Preparing for the big date
Girls, a lot of you are going to varnish your nails and buy a brand new head-turning outfit. But get this, 15% of you are going to also have A BIKINI WAX, I wonder why…? What’s even more mind boggling is that a quarter of the men interviewed also said they’d had a bikini wax before going on their last date. It shocked the hell out of me until I read that only four men were asked in this category. Phew, I thought I was really out of touch with popular trends.
Who puts out on the first date?
A fifth of men would quite happily have sex on the first date. 80% of men would say no to sex on a first date. Really? I reckon there are some Pinocchio sized noses out there. As for the women? Well guys, some of you are going to get lucky on the third date, but for most of you, don’t even think about it until after the fifth.
Here’s a really interesting little bit of info. People aged 45+ meet more sexual partners online than any other age group…
No second date
The top reason for the first date being the last date is if personalities just don’t click. Seems sensible, you know when it isn’t right. On the other hand, turn up wearing any old thing and it seems it wouldn’t matter. No-one said that they wouldn’t see someone again because of their date’s taste in clothes.
Meeting Mr/Miss Right
When’s the right time to tell someone you love them? The sexes are agreed on this one. If the sparks are flying, you’re going to tell each other within the first six months, maybe a year at the outside. If it reaches a year and a day forget it.
Some surprising findings in there, but do they match Sparklers’ thoughts and experiences? We’d love to know.
Jack Montgomery
Author for the online friendship and dating site Sparkle; co-author of two travel guidebooks, blogger and seriously bad poet.
What is Sparkle?
It's a busy community, it's a lively chat forum, it's friendship, it's speed dating, it's romance, it's finding mates, it's arranging events - it's Sparkle..
Sparkle takes social networking and online communities to a new level, letting you find people with shared interests and engage in captivating online activities.
