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Denise Corlett - How Your Grandkids Can Help You Find a Date

By Denise Corlett.
Find more articles by Denise here.

How do you find a date or prospective partner once you hit your fifties, sixties and upwards?  It’s that whole struggle of where is there someone decent for me?  “There’s no way I want to try internet dating at my age?  Who can you trust anyway?  It’s just all too hard.”  It’s a problem I often hear and finding someone needn’t be such a struggle.  Using the resources around you and a dose of creativity and trying some low key approaches can often bring in some great results.  There are countless ways to meet someone special for you and I am going to focus on just one in this article – your grandchildren.

If you live near your grandchildren you are going to have more opportunities to see how this can work.  The key is to get involved in their day to day activities and then create opportunities from there.  Day to day activities could include school/day care, pick-ups and drop offs, parties and sporting activities.  Let me give you an example.  Let’s say your grandchildren attend sporting activities – rugby, soccer, netball.  So they have to go to practise during the week and then a big game on the weekend.  How many other parents, friends, grandparents, family members and so on are attending those activities?  Depending on the activity there can be quite a number.  Also, how many of those attending could be in your age range and possibly single?  If you were to do a headcount of other attendees that don’t appear to be partnered and in your age group you might be pleasantly surprised.  How often is the single grandparent encouraged to attend family and particularly grandchildren’s activities?  What is the likelihood of there being others there like you who would also like to be with someone special?  There is a high likelihood that there is.  It might just be that you haven’t thought about that medium as a way of meeting a date or prospective partner.

So what can you do to take advantage of such situations?

Firstly, make sure you pick a number of your grandchildren’s activities that you can attend.  Then begin attending and going along regularly.  Take a count of any suitable partners for you that may potentially be single.  If there is a potential there, you will need to get closer to them.  The great thing about kids activities are that people are in a fun and relaxed environment and open to chatting.  Approach someone of interest and spark up a conversation.  A good place to start is to make a comment about what is going on around you – and in this example – the game or something related to it.  You will need to keep the conversation going and in the process it may well be that you can work out if someone is in the same boat as you.  If the conversation has gone well and there is a possible interest there, you need to be able to leave the conversation and in a subtle way let them know how much you have enjoyed their company, conversation etc.  There are subtle ways of doing this in your own particular style. 

If there other person isn’t available or there isn’t any common ground there, well you’ve just had a friendly conversation with another person.  No loss of face.  No pressure.  This mere act of having a conversation is just the beginning of seeing if there is a spark to take things further.  

With just this one example, you can see the possibilities opening up of crossing prospective partners and getting into low key, friendly conversations without having loss of face or there being pressure.  It is just a start but an important one.  Who knows what can happen next, but you can be instrumental in taking it to the next level, in your own distinctive and comfortable style.

To download my new free eBook “Discover the secrets to finding and attracting your ideal partner and having the best relationship ever”, click here.

Denise Corlett, founder of Dating Advice, is an expert in helping professional men and women all over the world find, attract and be successful in relationships. She has been helping individuals and couples for over 20 years and takes great pleasure in seeing them getting the results they desire.

Published 12th Jun 2009

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