Use online dating websites for people scared of the internet
My boyfriend’s mum is one of those mums who’s too scared to buy things off Amazon because of all the people using the internet to steal credit card details and also because the numbers on her credit card are too small for her to read without her glasses. If this sounds like your single older person then check out My Lovely Parent – it’s free which means they don’t have to deal with any of that pesky security business and, even better – YOU sign them up menaing they don’t have to do any of the work; all they have to do is watch the results roll in. Also it’s pretty much idiot proof – ‘mum’s email will never ever be shared with anyone’ they say– just check out the video below.
Make a video
Norwegian Alex spent a year filming his mum secretly and turned the results into a film that he released on to the internet over the weekend. It details the things she likes, what kind of man Alex thinks would be good for her, and how to get in touch if they think Eva’s the lady for them. If Alex is single then this is probably working as an excellent dating tool for him too.
Get them to join a club that's not all one gender
Because things are the way they are with older generations, things like book clubs and crafting clubs (shout out to my mum's patchworking class!) are still traditionally populated by women. The same works for men with things like I dunno, golf or football matches I suppose. Perhaps encourage them to have a think about getting involved in things that might be of interest to both genders like walking, ping pong (my mate's mum LOVES her ping pong group and got an admirer out of it), music groups or erm, going to the pub. There's never enough older women drinking in the pub by themselves. Let's work to change that.
Go offline
There’s a reason there’s still dating ads in the local papers kids – because there's still plenty of people who don’t care for the internet. So stop making fun of 'Male, 55, GSOH from Woking who likes long walks on the beach' and encourage your mum to give him a call.
Go on holiday
There’s plenty of singles hols for the over 50s (that aren’t coach trips around Devon for little old ladies). Saga Holidays says that a fifth of their travellers are solo meaning there’ll be plenty of people on their Singles Holidays which go all over the world (for all price brackets) and have specially trained ‘solo hosts’ to help introduce the more shy to their fellow travellers.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.