Archive
Dating: every article
28 articles, newest first.
23 September 202617 pieces
- DatingA standard costs you something. A preference doesn't.The culture doesn't have standards, it has moods. Decide your line at noon, because midnight is a terrible negotiator.
- DatingBook the premarital counseling before the venue depositAn engagement is about eleven months of logistics and maybe nine hours of the conversations that actually decide the marriage. Fix that ratio.
- DatingThe Second Date Is Where You Start Paying AttentionThe first one was an audition. The second is where you find out who she actually is, and whether you'd want her in your kitchen for forty years.
- DatingThe proposal is forty seconds. Plan the other four hours.Ring size, weather backups, the box that ruins your jacket, and the twenty minutes after she says yes.
- DatingIntroducing her to your people without making it an auditionFriends first, family second, and never at Christmas. How to run the introduction so she's welcomed instead of interviewed.
- DatingLong Distance Only Works If Somebody's MovingA relationship with 900 miles in it needs a date on the calendar and a name attached to the moving truck. Everything else is just a very expensive friendship.
- DatingHow to end it without making her wonder what she did wrongDo it in person, say it in the first minute, and don't leave the door cracked open because you feel bad.
- DatingTell Her What You Owe Before You Buy The RingA one-page money disclosure, done at a kitchen table, months before you propose. What goes on the page and what to do when hers is worse than yours.
- DatingDating Again After Your Spouse DiedThe ring, the timeline, the photo on the mantel, and how to talk about your marriage on a first date without turning it into a eulogy.
- DatingEverybody's Getting Married and You're Still at Table 14Wedding season is brutal when you're the last single guy in the group. Here's how to use the wait instead of resenting it.
- DatingSay Yes to the Next Three SetupsThe oldest matchmaking system in America still works, and it runs on friends who know you. Stop turning it down.
- DatingWhere the marriage-minded women actually are after thirtyThe pool didn't shrink when you turned thirty. It moved indoors, onto a schedule, and mostly into places you've been skipping.
- DatingDating When You Hate Small TalkShyness isn't a character flaw to fix before you're allowed to pursue somebody. It's a wiring issue with practical workarounds.
- DatingIf You Have an Excuse Ready, That's the Warning SignThe problem was never the behavior. It's how smooth you've gotten at defending it to people who love you.
- DatingThe ring is the easy partEight weeks of lead time, four conversations you can't skip, and how to spend the money without pretending you know what a clarity grade is.
- DatingAsk in person, name the day, and accept the answerThe whole thing takes about twenty seconds. Almost everything that goes wrong happens because a man stretched it into three weeks.
- DatingWhat her father is actually trying to find outLeave your phone in the car, answer the money question straight, and stay behind to help with the dishes. The rest is easier than you think.
22 September 202610 pieces
- DatingGetting over somebody without pretending you're fineGrief after a breakup isn't a character flaw. But how you carry it decides who you'll be when the next person shows up.
- DatingCourtship isn't an old-fashioned word for slowCourtship isn't a speed. It's a direction, declared out loud, in front of people who know you both.
- DatingHave the hard conversations while they're still cheapThe questions that cost you an awkward evening at month three will cost you years if you leave them until month eighteen.
- DatingNinety days on the app, then off itTreat a dating app like a tool with a job and a deadline, and it stops being the thing that quietly eats your twenties.
- DatingHow to tell when it's time to stop dating and chooseMost people who say they need more information already have enough. They need a decision, and the nerve to make it.
- DatingWhen Your Children Meet the Woman You're DatingThe introduction isn't a scheduling problem. It's a character problem, and getting it right starts months before anyone shakes hands.
- DatingWhen you're the one who wants it moreWanting marriage isn't the weakness. Financing someone else's indecision is, and there's a way out that leaves your dignity intact.
- DatingHow to run a first date that earns a second oneNinety minutes, somewhere you can hear each other, a plan you made yourself, and one question that gets past the résumé.
- DatingHow to ask somebody out in person and not be weirdThe ask is one sentence, eight seconds, and a specific plan. Almost everything that goes wrong happens before or after it.
- DatingWhat the first three months are actually forNinety days is long enough to learn who someone is and short enough to walk away cleanly. Use it properly.