The Hardest Part Of Dating After 30

“As someone without kids and won’t date someone with kids, it’s kids. To them, their kids come first and you will always be second. Planning anything becomes an absolute exhausting chore and you have to deal with some other adult the entire relationship.” — motorboather

“Pretty much everyone on the market is coming from a loooooong string of failed relationships, and in a lot of cases they’re the reason for that, but you often can’t figure that out until you’ve been dating for a while because they’ve gotten really good at concealing whatever the reason is.” — Asleep_Onion

“Hardest thing about dating in my 30s is that I’m way more of a homebody than I was as a young adult. So for one, finding a date is hard when I’d rather read a book at home and two is finding someone else who would rather stay at home, make a nice dinner, and read a book on a Friday night instead of going out.” — Syracusee

“Everyone has their own life filled with work, sports, friends, hobbies, and household chores. They are available for a short 30-minute chat after 7 p.m., but not on Tuesdays or Fridays. During this weekend, they’ll be out of town, and next weekend, an old high school friend will stay over. The weekend after that, they go on vacation. They wake up 2 hours before you do and go to bed 3 hours before you do. But other than that, they are looking for a long-term, serious relationship. What sucks about loneliness is that you can’t fix it on your own.” — Delta4o

“Dates start to feel like job interviews. People around tend to have their shit together. If you’ve gotten used to being single, getting in a relationship feels like major sacrifices will be necessary (time, money, hobbies…) And people are quicker to decide not just because they know what they want but because the stakes are higher too.” — littlethommy

“You sometimes pay for what their ex did to them.” — JJJAAABBB123

“It’s not all fun and games anymore. People feel late or behind. First dates are often: are we compatible, do you want kids, are you okay with my kids, are you ready for a serious relationship, do you make enough money, do you own a home, politics, religion? I don’t have time to mess with you of we aren’t a match because I’m in my 30s and supposed to be married and having kids. The days of just light fun dating are less common.” — ZLVe96

“You have your preferences narrowed down a LOT more than you did in your 20s, thus finding a compatible partner is more difficult. Especially if you dislike kids.” — Clintman

“I didn’t really start dating until I was in my 30s and the hardest part for me was the fact that all of the guys I’ve dated have already had long term relationships and are now mostly just looking for flings. I felt like I missed out on the good part and was left with scraps.” — stephers85

“Finding someone. You either have to be super open with your preferences or you’re not going to find anyone. Like even with similar interests, when you go down the road of politics, ethics, kids, morals, it’s so hard to find someone that meshes on all of it. Which is why we are probably single anyway.” — TampaDiablo

“Online dating sucks and all my friends are married or dead or single fathers. So I am on my own for the most part.” — somedude-83