Confessions Of A Single Mom On Tinder

Holly Thatcher is a mom of two seeking… a guy who doesn’t think her small children are in the way (even if their talking trains sometimes kill the mood). Here’s what it’s like to put the kids to bed and then open up a dating app.

MOMMY,” PIPES UP MY YOUNGEST. “Are you putting out tonight?” I think—at least I hope—he means going out.

My sons, ages 6 and 4, are too young to understand what dating is, but they always watch with curiosity when I’m getting ready. Applying my eyeliner while they demand more Peppa Pig is just one of the many challenges I’m juggling while dating as a single mom. Others include finding last-minute babysitters and men who might like my kids as much as I do.

My marriage ended two years ago, and it took me awhile to get my head around dating again—but now that I have, I see that I’m doing life in reverse. As I’m dipping a toe in the dating pool, friends are becoming parents. Their lives revolve around strollers and breast-feeding, not meeting men in bars or swapping dating horror stories over a glass of wine.

But being single and a mother is a funny mix. At times it’s liberating to be me again, to have drinks with virtual strangers and get excited about where the night might lead.And then I remember exactly where it leads: home. Because even when you’ve booked a babysitter for the evening, you’re the one who has to get up for the 6 a.m. wake-up call, switch on Toy Story for the 813th time, make snacks, and break up squabbles, whether you have a postdate hangover or not.