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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder why online dating isn't working for me

94 replies

hadababygirl · 02/08/2013 17:33

(Apparently) I am attractive. I am well educated, good job, own home, car, 33 years old.

One DD who is 14 months.

Not a jot of interest Sad Plenty of messages from men 20 years older than me, usually one liners like 'you have a great smile' but nothing from anyone my age who seems to be up for a relationship. I don't think it's DD either as even before I had her I got no interest from the sites.

AIBU to feel unattractive and invisible to the opposite sex!?

OP posts:
PasswordProtected · 03/08/2013 13:31

OK, so if your profile is fine, what about your "requirements"?
Age range, appearance, location, interests?
Searching on: tall, dark, handsome prince, aged 35, with own castle and white horse, hobbies: dragon slaying & jousting, is probably not going to yield much.

PasswordProtected · 03/08/2013 13:35

Should add, I met a charming older man online, some years ago, with whom I could easily have fallen in love, but I am too independent & competitve (his words, but put more diplomatically). He ended up remarrying (widower) after a whirlwind romance. I ended up with toyboy, good all round, but at the time I was not looking for a younger man!

Original poster
hadababygirl · 03/08/2013 13:35

Lol. Obviously not that. My requirements are very general and broad. I honestly think I'm just a bit too old, that combined with not being beautiful and having DC maybe puts them off.

OP posts:
4thfloor · 03/08/2013 13:43

hadababygirl would you like to share your profile, even with one poster here that you trust, and get some neutral feedback on it?

Original poster
hadababygirl · 03/08/2013 13:46

Nooo, I am not up to the inevitable criticism that would follow. I genuinely don't think there's anything wrong with it but I think it just isn't for me x

OP posts:
PasswordProtected · 03/08/2013 13:49

Well, to use that well-worn cliche, beauty is in the eye of the beholder ;-)
I was 47 (still just about) when I met toyboy, who was 41.

4thfloor · 03/08/2013 14:00

hadababygirl why would anyone here critise, no one would.

I am wondering if maybe this is coming across in your profile and contacts you're making too? It sounds as if you're almost are accepting that no one will be interested possibly because you are at a low ebb yourself at the mo?

Sometimes our subconcious gives things away in our writing

So two questions

  1. Do you really want a date/partner at the moment, for them, or is it to plug an emptiness

  2. What would happen if you arranged a date? Would you turn up or back out at the last minute to avoid rejection?

No need to answer but thought I'd ask as this is how I felt once and looking back I thought my profile was great, but I can only now see where I was going wrong. I was putting subtle signals that I couldnt see at the time that were saying 'I'm know am unlovable' iyswim (really sorry if I'm way off the mark here Smile

Nancy66 · 03/08/2013 14:13

Do you just have one picture on your profile? That could be putting people off...

Everyone has one amazing, flattering picture of themselves. People who have only one photo are often only posting a picture where they look great but - maybe - it's not realistic.

Several photos offer a much clearer idea of how someone looks - and their body shape.

I have to admit that when I was internet dating I avoided the 'one picture' profiles as it was nearly always the case that they were a disappointment in the flesh.

yes, it's shallow but that - alas - is internet dating for you.

Original poster
hadababygirl · 03/08/2013 14:14

Nope, got several.

Flat - the thing is I've been trying for YEARS to meet somebody, I accept I may have a touch of cynicism now but certainly didn't back in 2008.

OP posts:
TroublesomeEx · 03/08/2013 16:29

hada it won't be because you're too old (I'm older) or because you've got a child (I've got two and one's a teenager!) and it won't be because you're not beautiful (I'm reasonably attractive - but no more).

I made the offer upthread to C&P my profile to you in a PM and it still stands.

I wonder if 4thfloor has a point.

VelvetSpoon · 03/08/2013 16:48

It is perfectly possible to do everything 'right' and still have no success with OD.

It is, as I said above, mostly luck. You
can't change that.

No need for the OP to be made to feel its her fault, chances are its not. I have been rejected time and again by men who wouldn't even have dared approach me in a bar. That is nothing to do with me, and everything to do with them, and their issues. OD is weird, and largely made up of socially inadequate men. Hence why I gave it up!

BadLad · 03/08/2013 16:52

Men have much the same feelings, for your information. Reading other fora's threads about online dating, it seems that most men assume that they outnumber women 20-1 or so, and therefore they message loads of women at once, thinking that they are wasting their time if they only message one, as chances are she won't reply.

I would be happy to give a man's opinion of your profile and keep it schtum if you like.

JessieMcJessie · 03/08/2013 18:27

OP, do you live in a large city? Possibly you are being filtered by location? Maybe change your location to London and see what happens. Appreciate that means that going on dates would be hard, but if the response is better, maybe you have to accept you are in the wrong place to maximise your chances of finding someone, and consider a move.

SoftKittyWarmKitty · 03/08/2013 18:42

I'm in a similar place to the OP except I get some messages, however they are usually one-line perve fests Hmm. Think my profile needs re-wording. If you wouldn't mind pm-ing me your profile wording please Folkgirl (and anyone else who's having some success), I promise not to plagiarise you Smile. Just want to get an idea of the general vibe of those who actually get dates.

watchforthesnail · 03/08/2013 18:42

OP

its not you :)

Ive done so much online dating that its not even funny. I have had no success. Ive had more dates than anyone should ever have in a lifetime. Should it be a numbers game, i should have won, several times over.

Im 34, i have a child, a job, nice house, im a fab person and i look ok too :)
ive a ton of interests, and am nice. I have a lovely profile and lots of pictures.

Unfortunately, with online dating, you are fishing in a pool that only has a very few ' nice' men in it. As the recent bbc docu showed, lots of profiles are fakes, then you need to remember lots are married and looking for a bit on the side, a very very high percentage are looking just for sex, quite a lot of whats left are single for some very obvious reasons or have massive issues which only someone with no sense would go near. and that leaves very very few decent men.

Its not you, and there isnt really a lot you can do about it, other than be open to things happening in real life and maybe being a bit pro active about it. rubbish i know. but thats what a lot of people who have done it for any lenght of time have found.

DiseasesOfTheSheep · 03/08/2013 19:52

OP, eharmony wouldn't even let me on their site as their software is "unable" to suggest suitable matches for me, on the basis of the personality quiz answers I gave.

I guarentee they were all honest too Blush

You're doing better than me!

LackingEnergy · 03/08/2013 20:08

I was offered a trip to Venice by a guy twice my age when I joined a dating site Blush. Didn't stay on it very long, only attracted gamers and older men, I don't game and am not interested in a 20+ age gap

Went out with work a few weeks later met and old friend, got drunk and slept it of at his, 5 years later he's now my dh and we have a ds :)

Dating sites aren't the bee all and end all :)

Changebagsandgladrags · 03/08/2013 21:17

Ok, so I'm married to my Internet date. We've been together for 8 years.

Like you, I had a long run of n success. Those who did contact me were weirdos. Or if I went on a date we didn't gel. Or they were just after sex.

Here's what I learned:

  1. Choose your site carefully. Sometimes free ones attract those looking for casual sex. Sometimes fee paying ones are better. I found DH on Loveandfriends, not sure if they are still going.
  1. Write an interesting profile, something that relates to your personality. So mine was a bit jokey, but also serious.
  1. Look at who is looking at you. DH looked at me, but didn't contact me. So I was like Oi, hello.
  1. Email for a bit before going on a date.

OK, so I sound like a know-all. It took lots of time, there were lots of frogs and worse.

Also, try other things. I did singles wine tasting, I joined my local Ramblers group. I did conservation projects...

Ms23 · 03/08/2013 23:49

I think the trick is in finding the right dating website. My friends have had success on match. An older friend said she had no luck until she added a 'sexy, messy haired' photo to the more professional/business-like photos she had before.

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