Realising how out of touch I am with today's tech.
God it scared the life out of me.
I opened up the app that a friend had recommended and began the process.
I was instantly traumatised.
So many questions.
What was I looking for?
I don’t know!
There wasn’t an option for the man of my dreams who seamlessly fitted into my existing life without disturbing it or making it harder for me or my children.
So I opted for Separated, I want to date but nothing serious, seeking a man for dating.
I thought this was as honest as I could be under the circumstances. I didn’t realise at the time that when translated through a male online dating brain it meant.
‘Looking for dirty talk or a quick hookup, don’t worry about making conversation. Who needs it?’
Next was picking the photos. I was lucky here as a friend had recently purchased a photo shoot for the 2 of us and I had a few good pics from it. I also threw in some more casual ones.
Selfies were out of the question. I had tried a few in recent years, as it was now the done thing, but I always felt stupid and vain and that reflected poorly in the picture. Being highly self critical probably didn't help either, they were never going to be good enough as far as I was concerned.
I knew selfies were an art form and some of my friends had mastered it to a tea but I just wasn't ready yet.
Next up was a little sentence about me, supposedly to grab attention.
Now I never went into advertising and I'm the last person who could sell herself successfully so I did what all sensible women do.
I asked my friends for advice.
The responses were so varied I was still left afloat, not having any idea what to say about myself.
Did I go honest? Serious? Flirty? Or suggestive?
How did I make a mid40's exhausted, hard working mum sound appealing?
So I gave up. This clearly needed a deeper level of consideration, than I was prepared for.
24 hours later I was back and this time more determined.
I opted for brief little notes, not too much detail, keeping it light and breezy seemed a good idea.
After all, I didn't want to scare anyone off, right? Wrong.
It was now like ripping off a plaster I just wanted it over with and in my haste to get it finished I misread one of the questions.
When I pressed that final button to release my profile.
Bang straight away I had 5 likes. Wow!!
I thought, that's impressive.
Imagine my shock when they were all from women.
What? Jesus. What had I done?
Yep. You guessed it, I'd ticked I was a woman looking for women.
Panic ensued.
My hands were sweating so much I couldn't press the buttons quick enough.
Edit edit edit. HELP. EDIT
Phew. Done.
Well at least I now knew if all else failed and I fancied branching out I had options. 😆