Dating at any age can be a minefield, but when you hit your thirties it can be a whole new ball game.
From balancing dating with parenthood to trying to find someone who’s not in “panic mode”, people in their thirties have been revealing what dating is really like.
Thankfully, there are also a lot of plus points - especially now your budget extends beyond Nando’s.
So if you’re heading for 30, here are just a few of the highs and lows you can expect...
1. “Dating in your 30s is trying to find someone with the least amount of baggage (emotional, children, etc.), or at least less baggage than you.”
2. “Single mums. Lots and lots of single mums.”
3. “Like watching a movie you’ve already seen a million times and memorised all the lines wishing you could just fast forward to the good part.”
4. “People are unapologetically slutty.”
5. “It sucks. You would think that people get better at treating each other well and mature emotionally as they age, but nope.”
- Ol_beans
6. “I met my partner when I was 30 and he was 37. Honestly the biggest thing is just everyone by that age has a history - he hadn’t been married but had lived with someone several years in his 20s. I didn’t care because it’d be weird to not reach our ages and not have a history I think.”
7. “It’s awesome. Less games, more honesty, better dinners. I have my own place that’s nice, so that’s cool.”
- New_chef
8. “When you get older every new date more and more reminds me of a job interview.”
9. “I am more secure in my career and more experienced in life. If you have invested in something like your career, or life experiences, education, etc, and not just squandered your time merely existing you’ll attract others more or less the same.”
- raf2442
10. “You run across the 19/20 year olds that like dating ‘older men’, but you soon realise that besides the physical, nothing else really fits.”
- Reapr
11. “It seems like everyone is in panic mode looking for their next significant other.”
12. “Same as in your twenties, but less drunk.”