How to enjoy the single life - help needed!

[Newsinglemum58]

Hi, so three years out of a long marriage/LTR of 20 years which spanned most of my late teenage and adult life.

Now find myself alone at 40 with two DDs who are teen/preteen. Dabbled with the apps initially but haven’t gone back on for some time now - don’t feel it’s for me.
I did meet one guy who turned into a FWB situation which has gone on a long time (almost 3 years on and off). But apart from that, I’ve not been able to experience much else. I feel like I’m clueless as to how I’m meant to enjoy this new found freedom. I worry about how to meet anyone and then if I do I stress over close contact with a stranger and get stressed about STDs etc…

I think I need some words of advice on how to embrace this.. or do I just give up and accept that being on my own isn’t so bad and probably a lot less stress in the long run?

Step 1: how do you want your life to be? Dating lots? New long term partner? Swinging? Couple of new FWBs? What would be ideal, if you took all the worry and stress away?

Relationship would be the aim.

I’ve found fwb to be confusing and emotionally not fun… but as the sex has been good it’s been very hard to end it conclusively.

OK, so you don't need to get worried about close contact with a stranger then, because presumably, you'd like to meet someone who doesn't see sex before you've got to know each other as a priority.

So that's that worry off the cards.

What do you do in your life where you meet people? Or what could you do? Doesn't matter if it's men or not, just generally.

Not much at all… I work, but I think the likelihood of meeting anyone there is slim. Beyond that I don’t do any groups or hobbies. I’ve also binned all the apps off, so I’m just not meeting anyone in real life or online.

What are you interested in?

Not much these days! I like racket sports but have no one to play with. I like walking in the countryside…
Now I’m a single parent most of my time goes on the kids, or resting/catching up when they are with their dad. Im trying to save whatever spare money I’ve got for the future, so can’t really justify spending money on joining groups for myself either.

Walking groups? Walking tours? Of galleries? Of local history? Of anything at all? Meetup? Fb events?

Yes, I’ve thought about it… I just feel sometimes this sense of dread at putting myself out there, like it’s sad at this age to be joining groups etc to meet people. I know how silly that sounds but it’s how I feel for some reason. I just feel like at 40 if I’ve not got the connections, maybe it’s too late to bother now. Does that make any sense? I guess I’m saying I do want to meet someone, but I’m not sure I want to make the effort to do so and would rather it happens if it happens. But is that just silly and unlikely to…

I took up photography. I bought a good camera. And I discovered I’m actually really enjoying it and I’m not too bad at it.

I’ve tinkered with it for a while, then I joined a camera club. Would something like this be for you?

Are you on Frolo? That’s great for meeting fellow single parents as friends and also has a dating bit now.

Are there any local dating or friendship Facebook groups in your area? These can be a great way to meet new people