I've always had one main rule when it comes to dating: “Never go out with someone who wouldn’t be able to cope with going camping.”
To clarify, that didn’t ever mean that a potential partner had to be some hard core rough-and-ready outdoorsy type of girl, nor did I expect them to have actually been camping before. It was more the idea that if a girl was utterly horrified at the notion of roughing it for a few days in a tent in the wilderness, away from her makeup/shoes/café, then she probably wasn’t the one for me.
Admittedly it’s a little ridiculous, but I reckon it’s as good a rule as any “must have a good sense of humour” cliché.
This was my litmus test – my testing of the waters to see what lurked beneath. And that’s largely what dating is – trying to suss out the other person, to see the real them and evaluate if that’s the person you want to spend your future with.
It made me start to think about what sort of dating rules or deal-breakers friends of mine had. By and large, I reckon our gender gets painted as being rather simplistic and unsophisticated when it comes to dating – that all we want is a pretty girl who doesn’t give us too much grief. But dig beneath the surface and get past the universal “must not be mental” clause and things tend to get a little more interesting and personal.
A friend whom I shall call Dave (because that’s his name) said he tended to wear a t-shirt to first dates that said “Haikus are easy, but sometimes they don’t make sense, refrigerator.” If his date didn’t get it (“What sort of flower is a haiku?”) then he was done.
“Must like the beach,” says another mate. Fair enough, he’s a surfer.
“I’d never trust someone that says they don’t like animals,” says another. Fair enough, I get that.
Others were spur-of-the-moment things. A colleague told me about a date with a girl who decided to eat an apple in the cinema, oblivious to the irritation of the cinema-goers around them. He didn’t call her again.
Some deal-breakers are a little more inexplicable. A mate woke up beside someone he’d been on a date with the night before (obviously a successful one) only to discover a harp in her room. He slipped out of the room and never looked back. “Harps are bigger than you think,” he said, by way of explanation.
And some rules are just a little strange.
One of my friends states that he’d never be able to go out with someone who wouldn’t, erm, break wind in front of him. “I’d rather she didn’t do it on the first date,” he clarified. “But if a girl I’ve been dating for a while couldn’t do that, then it’s a sign we’re not that comfortable together.” That makes a certain sense, I guess…
I wonder if people should be more upfront with their dating deal-breakers? It might save everyone a lot of time.
If nothing else, it might make for some entertaining first date conversation.
“So…. do you own a harp?”
This article is taken from"live4com.au" and is written by "Anthony Reynolds" and not my creation.
To clarify, that didn’t ever mean that a potential partner had to be some hard core rough-and-ready outdoorsy type of girl, nor did I expect them to have actually been camping before. It was more the idea that if a girl was utterly horrified at the notion of roughing it for a few days in a tent in the wilderness, away from her makeup/shoes/café, then she probably wasn’t the one for me.
Admittedly it’s a little ridiculous, but I reckon it’s as good a rule as any “must have a good sense of humour” cliché.
This was my litmus test – my testing of the waters to see what lurked beneath. And that’s largely what dating is – trying to suss out the other person, to see the real them and evaluate if that’s the person you want to spend your future with.
It made me start to think about what sort of dating rules or deal-breakers friends of mine had. By and large, I reckon our gender gets painted as being rather simplistic and unsophisticated when it comes to dating – that all we want is a pretty girl who doesn’t give us too much grief. But dig beneath the surface and get past the universal “must not be mental” clause and things tend to get a little more interesting and personal.
A friend whom I shall call Dave (because that’s his name) said he tended to wear a t-shirt to first dates that said “Haikus are easy, but sometimes they don’t make sense, refrigerator.” If his date didn’t get it (“What sort of flower is a haiku?”) then he was done.
“Must like the beach,” says another mate. Fair enough, he’s a surfer.
“I’d never trust someone that says they don’t like animals,” says another. Fair enough, I get that.
Others were spur-of-the-moment things. A colleague told me about a date with a girl who decided to eat an apple in the cinema, oblivious to the irritation of the cinema-goers around them. He didn’t call her again.
Some deal-breakers are a little more inexplicable. A mate woke up beside someone he’d been on a date with the night before (obviously a successful one) only to discover a harp in her room. He slipped out of the room and never looked back. “Harps are bigger than you think,” he said, by way of explanation.
And some rules are just a little strange.
One of my friends states that he’d never be able to go out with someone who wouldn’t, erm, break wind in front of him. “I’d rather she didn’t do it on the first date,” he clarified. “But if a girl I’ve been dating for a while couldn’t do that, then it’s a sign we’re not that comfortable together.” That makes a certain sense, I guess…
I wonder if people should be more upfront with their dating deal-breakers? It might save everyone a lot of time.
If nothing else, it might make for some entertaining first date conversation.
“So…. do you own a harp?”
This article is taken from"live4com.au" and is written by "Anthony Reynolds" and not my creation.
