My dating no-nos
Depending on who you ask, there are plenty of them
Art by Mikayla Croucher
One of the toughest challenges in life is something which requires a lot of reading and understanding people, and some skill, resulting in a severe loss of sanity.
This can consist of things like doing group projects, working in retail, or competing in Pokémon World Championships. As exhausting and draining these can be, none can compare to the difficulty of one activity in particular — dating.
Dating is one of those experiences where it feels like there’s a lot of trial and error just to make the most of it. Finding potential people to go out with, figuring out the details of what to do on a date, and trying to impress them can be so overwhelming for the average person. This doesn’t even include what happens when something goes wrong on a date.
However, I do have a few dating no-nos to share to at least help make dating a little bit more enjoyable.
Talking about their ex
This red flag is more circumstantial compared to others, but going on a date with someone who talks about their ex is a cause of concern for me. Being compared to an ex is one thing, but being told an ex did something better than I do is a whole other tangent, even if it was indirect or they didn’t mean it.
If they came out of a rough relationship, I could somewhat understand why they might bring up an ex if it helps them heal. However, I argue friends and family are better suited to listen to someone talking about an ex than someone they don’t know as well. Even then, depending on how they describe the ex and their experiences, they probably shouldn’t have gone back to dating in their state.
Poor hygiene
I speak from my experiences of attending many social events like conventions and festivals in saying having poor hygiene is a hard pass for me. I already have to deal with being surrounded by people on public transit where I can tell they haven’t even bothered to shower or wear fresh clothes.
I don’t know if I would consider getting close to someone that’s trying to keep people away when they go out in public, whether they know it or not.
Being disrespectful to others
As someone who grew up in areas with a lack of respect from too many people also residing there, I’d distance myself from any date if they can’t be bothered to act politely. They don’t have to tip a waiter $100, help out at multiple charities, or look after a dozen cats. Just don’t be cruel to people — unless there’s a good reason for it.
They don’t have the same pop culture interests
This is another subjective red flag, but as someone who’s chronically online, not liking media such as video games or anime borders on being someone who is not worth dating.
While it would be cool if they were someone who knew what the optimal mask to run on an “Ogerpon” would be for an upcoming Pokémon video game competition, just knowing they like Pokémon would be enough to give me some comfort.
The same thing goes for watching anime. Being with someone who doesn’t want to watch anime with me would hurt a bit. Having someone I could watch the upcoming second season of Oshi no Ko with would definitely make a date a lot more appealing for me. Having something in common allows me to see if there’s something extra to do with that special someone.
