« A Special Ex Wife | Main | Finding a Hot Jewish Date »
June 11, 2007
Single Parent Meet and Greet
In the film About A Boy, perpetually bored Hugh Grant gets the thought into his head that dating single, emotionally vulnerable mothers is the next big thing in dating. He then proceeds to go on a series of no-strings dates with recently single mothers who are far too emotionally volatile to ever grow emotionally attached to sleazeball Grant, which is just fine by him. Needless to say this "plan" of his blows up in his face, in a variety of different way (it turns out that lying about having a child has some serious consequences). The film DOES open up a couple of questions - Are single parents in demand amongst singles that have no children of their own? Do you have to have a child to date a single parent? And just who does Hugh Grant think he is? Single parent dating sites are nothing new, but are people like Hugh Grant seriously looking in church basements for single parents meet and greets?
If you follow this ridiculous column of mine, you'll remember that lately I've been grappling with growing older, following in the footsteps of my parents, blah blah blah. One of the little details which I've been noticing lately is the sheer amount of younger (well, they seem young to me) hip urban people with kids. There would be nothing unusual about this, if not for the fact that said hipsters seem to be toting kids the same way that they would carry any other fashion accessory. In the city in which I live, children are hauled around with the same air as dogs used to be - a good conversation starter, a symbol that indicates the maturity of the hipster parent.
It's an understandable thing to do (for reasons other than the natural joys of childbirth and the continuation of life). People are generally suspicious about taking chances on a mysterious date, and there's nothing that says "responsibility" than successfully raising a child. Unless of course, you're raising a child for the express purpose of picking up dates.
I should probably mention the fact that, like Dennis Leary and Hugh Grant before me, I'm only talking about a small minority of parents. People will continue to bear and rear children for selfless reasons, and only a small number of delusional egomaniacs will cart around a child in the hopes of hearing "Can I call you" from another single parent. I just never thought that a movie written by the same guy that did High Fidelilty was actually based on reality.
Posted by Glen at June 11, 2007 2:24 AM
