Divorce is unfortunately common in our society. The statistic quoted most often is that 50% of marriages will end in divorce. This can lead to any number of difficult decisions to be made, and the almighty prenuptial agreement grows only more popular with each set of vows taken and broken. What compounds the difficulty more than anything else, however, is the inclusion of custody disputes and the presence of children. Divorce can be very hard on children. However, it can also be hard on single-parenting adults that attempt to return to the dating world with children. Divorce is just one of many ways single fathers may arise, but they all result in the same difficulty: dating with children in tow.
This is not to cast children as burdens rather than blessings, but dating others is a method of moving on that can be quite necessary for many individuals that have gone through a painful divorce. In many ways, it can lead to a more stable home if the single parent, particularly the single father, is able to move onto another. This is doubly true if the child has no second parent in the picture.
As a single dad, the thing to remember is that you need to pursue your own interests without sacrificing the best interests of your child. This is not nearly as limiting as it may seem to be off the cuff. Rather than bring in harsh limits, it simply changes the game. Single fathers are (and should be!) much less prone to light flings than men without children. Ultimately, the reduced propensity for one-night stands and casual dating will result in much less drama in your life and a much more stable situation for your child as your mood remains even and, perhaps more relevantly, your wallet remains properly thick.
Many worry that their caring for a child will not be attractive to members of the female sex. In truth, this depends entirely upon what members of the opposite sex you want to be attracting as a single dad; if you are attempting, again, to just have some fun and party it up a few nights a week, no, having a child isn’t attractive. It makes you too ‘safe’, not wild enough, unless you’re abandoning your child for dating and make this known, in which case you’ll be universally (and rightly) reviled. However, taking good care of your son or daughter makes you infinitely more attractive to anyone worth dating more than once–for roughly the same reason. It makes you a ‘safe’ choice, someone reliable and to be trusted, taking care of a child out of the goodness of your heart.
Dating with a child is very different than dating without, but it is simply a matter of maintaining proper expectations and proper perspective. If you want to date for sexual satisfaction only, you have other issues at work that you might consider addressing, but if you are actually looking for companionship, and perhaps a fresh romantic start, having a child isn’t a hindrance, but rather another factor of you, just another facet of your being that potential mates can take or leave.