Dating Dave

The perfect time to date is usually located just beyond the next achievement. After the demanding project, the move, the fitness goal, the debt repayment or the moment confidence finally feels permanent, dating will supposedly become simple. Delaying can be sensible when life is genuinely [...]

When the same disappointment appears in several relationships, it is tempting to conclude that dating is simply a run of bad luck. Sometimes it is. People can behave badly, conceal important information or lose interest for reasons that have little to do with us. Yet repetition can also reveal a [...]

Effort is one of the most commonly requested qualities in dating and one of the least clearly defined. A person says they want somebody who makes an effort, but the phrase may refer to planning, messages, punctuality, emotional attention, money or the courage to state an intention. When the meaning [...]

Few dating subjects become heated as quickly as the question of who should provide. One conversation treats a man paying for dinner as basic courtesy; another regards the expectation as outdated or unfair. The argument becomes less useful when it assumes that all women want the same arrangement or [...]

People often say they will date when they feel ready. The difficulty is that readiness can become an invisible finish line that moves every time they approach it. First it is after the promotion, then after losing weight, moving house, feeling more confident or becoming completely healed from the [...]

A first date can leave you with a surprisingly difficult question: do I actually want to see this person again? For years, the most common shortcut has been to ask whether there was a spark. It sounds sensible, but it places an enormous amount of weight on one feeling experienced in an artificial [...]

Modern relationships often become public in stages. First there is a photograph of two drinks, then a cropped shoulder, a shared location and eventually a clear picture with a name. This “soft launch” can be playful and sensible. It gives a new connection privacy while it develops. It can also [...]

Loneliness is not only the absence of conversation. Many single people miss the physical ease of another human being: a hand on the shoulder, a long hug, feet touching on the sofa or somebody reaching for them without an occasion. This is sometimes called touch starvation, and it can become [...]

Many singles say they want a calm, secure relationship, then feel strangely unmoved when one appears. The date replies when promised, asks thoughtful questions and makes their interest clear. There is no guessing, dramatic reunion or sudden withdrawal. Instead of relief, the dater experiences [...]

Dating has always involved money, but rising living costs have made the financial side harder to ignore. A casual drink, transport, childcare, new clothes and a meal can turn one first date into a noticeable household expense. People who genuinely want relationships may delay dating because they [...]

Dating profiles once tried to offend nobody. People liked travel, food, laughter and weekends with friends, producing thousands of pleasant descriptions that revealed almost nothing. Now a different style is appearing: singles lead with opinions. They announce political positions, unpopular [...]

Almost everybody enters dating with something they fear will change how another person sees them. It may be debt, chronic illness, a mental-health condition, family estrangement, infertility, a criminal mistake, limited sexual experience, recovery from addiction or an unusually complicated past. [...]

Every healthy relationship needs people outside it. Friends, family and professionals offer perspective, companionship and forms of support one partner cannot provide alone. Trouble begins when nearly every intimate thought, conflict and hope is shared with somebody else before it reaches the [...]

Dating after 40 is often described as returning to the beginning, but that is rarely accurate. You are not arriving empty-handed. You bring experience, preferences, responsibilities, friendships, disappointments and a clearer sense of what daily life actually requires. Some of that history makes [...]

Few dating phrases have travelled as quickly as “the ick.” It describes the sudden collapse of attraction after a small moment: the way somebody runs for a bus, mispronounces a word, uses an enthusiastic emoji or tells a joke that lands badly. One minute the person seems promising; the next, [...]