Imagine dating in your 20's, but in your 30's.

[halfwitpicker]

So as a 20 odd year old, but with the experience of a 30 odd year-old.

What would you do differently?

God I be fucking ruthless reckon

I think I'd just have casual FWB

Any messing and that'd be it.

I like to think I'd spot the losers and time wasters a mile off.

I wouldn't over-analyse everything a man said, trying to work out what it meant. I'd disengage at the first hint of head-games.

Get a decent-ish man nailed down to marriage and kids asap because my fertility was all over by the time I was 28 :(

(Alternatively just find an agreeable sperm donor then worry about finding a partner later.)

Can I join in as a 40 something year old? I'd stay single throughout my 20's, have some casual fun but not fall in love. Enjoy myself and see the world. In my early 30's I'd find my sea husband and settle down.

Probably not much different. I’m avoidant now and I was avoidant then.

That assumes the point of dating is to lock in a partner....
For me - dating in 20s was great.
Meeting people, learning about myself, and what I want, etc.

Dating in the 30s is far more stressful as the pressure to have kids (and therefore / to find a mate) was there in the background....

It feels like after that’s out of the way - as far as I can see in my dating friends in their 40s - dating after kids can be fun again

I would ditch the loser I spent 8 years of my life with and NOT get pregnant with the next available shag. I would shag around to my hearts content, continue with becoming a happier, healthier woman who knew herself inside out and where her boundaries were, THEN I would have a baby with someone who valued me.

Having said that, DS is my world, so what I would actually do is everything the same as otherwise I wouldn't have him, would I?

I'd make sure we had similar libidos and were sexually compatible.

I’d probably stay well away from dating altogether and concentrate on myself!!

The rest can wait until later!