Question: Dear Dean,
What’s the best way to meet a man if you are 40, single, and a mom?
- Single Mom in the City
Answer:
Dear Single Mom in the City,
To answer your question best, I think that it’s always useful to think in terms of Hugh Grant. I mean what single woman wouldn’t want to date him? Sure. He’s 51 now. But he was in his 40’s during the three movies that I am about to discuss. Hugh is someone to pay close attention to because he always has success in meeting attractive women in his films. Hugh is cute, his teeth are spectacular (especially for an Englishman), and he has a lovely accent. He is definitely someone that all of us single ladies could learn a little something from. (Try not to dwell on the fact that he was once involved in a sex scandal with a prostitute. After all, that was a very long time ago!)
Let’s first start with the movie, Notting Hill. In this movie, Hugh Grant owns an independent bookshop that specializes in travel writing. He has been coping with divorce after his wife left him for a man who looked exactly like Harrison Ford. Julia Roberts character enters his shop one day to buy a book. Minutes later, the pair collide in the street and Hugh spills his orange juice all over both of them. Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. Movie ends. They’re in love.
Next, there’s the movie About a Boy. In this movie, Hugh Grant spends most of his free time watching television, and reading about pop culture. Feeling lonely, Hugh comes up with the idea of attending a single-parents group called “SPAT” (Single Parents Alone Together) to meet potential female partners. As part of his ploy, he claims to have two-year-old son named Ned. His plan was kind-of successful and he ended up meeting a woman who lasted…for about a scene or two.
And lastly, there is the movie Bridget Jones’s Diary. Bridget is frustrated; she is in her early thirties, still single, very accident prone and worried about her weight. She works in publicity at a book publishing company in London where her main focus is fantasizing about her boss, Huge Grant. Bridget and Hugh begin to flirt heavily at work, first over e-mail. They eventually start dating, despite the fact that Hugh is a notorious womanizer with a questionable personality. In the end Bridget doesn’t end up with Hugh Grant. She ends up with Colin Firth. But this is not the point of the story that we’re supposed to pay attention to…
So, Single Mom in the City, you are probably wondering at this point where I am going with all of this. And I promise you that I do have a point. My point here is that there are lots of single, successful, attractive men out there! They are the owners of small independent bookshops, they are the men who attend the Single Parents Alone Together groups, and they are the flirtatious men in suits at your office. Once you start believing that these men actually do exist, and that they could be interested in YOU, you’ll begin to have luck in meeting them. So live your life to the fullest, stay active and busy doing the things that make you happy, and soon enough you’ll be that “girl standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her”.
And if all above fails, you can always be a contestant on ABC’s “The Bachelor”. Just look at Emily. She is a single mom with a daughter and on the season finale of the show, Brad Womack, chose her to be his wife.
So hang in there, Single Mom in the City! In no time at all you’ll find yourself a man who is kid-tested and mother approved!
Love,
Dean
