Look at the adverts for dating sites these days and what do you see? Young professionals in London, mostly, too busy to find partners in their free time and dealing with the impersonality of the big city. Flip to a few years down the line and they’re all in adverts for sensible cars: trendy grey haired dads sending their daughters off to university. So where are the ads aimed at the grandparents? What happened to online dating for seniors?
Well, nothing. Senior dating sites are still very much a part of the scene. From Just Senior Singles to Senior Dating Online, there are almost as many dating agencies dedicated to the over 40s, or over 50s or over 60s, as there are to those young unmarried people on the TV.
The question is, is joining one of these sites worth it?
Companionship After a Lifetime
A lot of us grandparents have had a long term relationship, or a marriage, which has ended through death or divorce. This is a time that can feel lonely and frightening. We might want to get back out there but we don’t know how.
Joining a senior dating site to find a new companion doesn’t always mean we’re looking for love, either. Maybe we just want a special friend, to share the things we used to enjoy doing with our spouse or life partner. Maybe we don’t know what we want, only that we’d like to go out for dinner or to a show sometime with someone who’s interested in the same things as us.
Senior dating sites can help break down the barriers of uncertainty in our new relationships. Online etiquette demands that date site users are up front about why they are on the sites, and what they want – so whether it’s a sexual relationship or simple companionship, no-one’s likely to get into anything with a false impression. After potentially decades out of the dating scene, this can be refreshing and confidence-boosting.
Profiling Your Future
The senior dating site works best if you give it a chance to represent you properly. You’ll find when you sign up (signing up may be free or paid for; in a free sign-up site you will often be given the chance to pay for an upgrade you don’t always need) that you are given the opportunity to create a profile. Take the time to do this properly and you’ll know that people getting in touch with you after viewing it already have an idea of who you are.
A typical profile includes some personal information, starting with a little bit about you – the kind of things you like to do on a perfect day, for example, or something that makes you laugh. Then you’ll get the standard personal information: a photo; occupation; marital status; whether you have grandchildren or not, that kind of thing. After that, you will typically be asked to fill out a form with your major interests in: from the kind of music you like to whether you have an interest in specific world issues.
Be honest. Be open. The more you reveal, the more you can be sure your responses are responding to the real you.
The Verdict
So – are dating sites for seniors really worth it? Given the number of members on all the ones we’ve seen, the answer has to be yes. What is a senior dating site, after all, but another place where you might find like-minded people who want the same things as you?
