It’s 2025, and if you think dating life for single parents is any better, think again.
A still from The Holiday. (Photo: IMDb)
New Delhi, UPDATED: Dec 2, 2025 14:45 IST
When you think about dating as a single parent, it’s tempting to picture Jude Law’s Graham from The Holiday, the impossibly charming single dad who sweeps Cameron Diaz’s Amanda Woods off her feet. Sure, we’ll give it to Graham for the accent, the warmth, the whole package. But most single parents will tell you that real-life dating is nowhere near that effortless. You may start off mushy, but things can take a sharp U-turn just like Robert De Niro’s Dwight in This Boy’s Life, and if you’re doing this in India, you need even more luck on your side.
People who claim to want “something real” often retreat the moment they hear the words “I have a child.” Overnight, a single parent stops being a person with wants, desires, and agency, and becomes a category: “baggage,” “responsibility,” or the classic — “too complicated.”
For single mothers, especially, even going on a date comes with its own brand of judgment. As Subhashree (name changed), a single parent based in Mumbai, puts it, “The moment you mention you have a child, some men quietly back away. Suddenly you’re not someone with desires, you’re someone with ‘baggage’.”
For single fathers, the journey may not be quite as hostile, but it comes with its own set of double standards — some kinder, some unfair in a different way.
The emotional reset before love Psychologist and couple counsellor Suvarna Varde emphasises that dating as a single parent often begins in a deeply emotional space. “In the aftermath of a breakup, people go through a cycle,” she explains. “Ther
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