Dating is meant to be fun and an opportunity to see if someone is a good match for dating and maybe starting a future with.
But some first dates don't qualify for a second date, let alone an entire relationship.
Redditor BravoMedic26 asked:
"Why didn't he or she get a second date?"
A Big Family
"She casually mentioned that she lost custody of her FIVE kids. Seemed like a red flag."
- Inevitable-College-3
"That's a parade of red flags Kremlin would be proud of."
- Daelis
Language Barrier
"She didn’t speak English. I didn’t speak Korean."
"We got set up on a blind date, and we were both told the other one spoke a little bit of the other's language."
"That was good pizza, though!"
- cwistofu
Free Babysitting
"She brought her kid to the restaurant without actually telling me she had a kid."
"Then she saw her friend outside, and she got up and left me with her child, who I had never met, and had a 15-minute conversation outside without me."
"Then she expected me to pay for the dinner."
- SoulBlightRaveLords
A Trash Heap
"Her apartment looked like it was ransacked by wolves. I'm not even exaggerating. This was a city apartment, so I'm quite sure there were no wolves."
"Most of the furniture was knocked over. Boxes everywhere. No clear delineation between laundry, food, and garbage."
- wut3va
"You say no wolves and then you describe a scenario where it's pretty obvious a wolf huffed and puffed and blew her house around."
- BeardsuptheWazoo
Quantity Over Quality Time
"She was one of the cutest girls I met online, and we had a nice dinner. Then she asked if I wanted to meet up with her friends for more drinks down the street. I thought that was fine, seemed like a good sign she wanted to keep hanging out."
"However, she didn't say another word to me the rest of the night once we met up with them. I just sat and listened to their conversation for an hour then awkwardly left."
- shadowsOfMyPantomime
A Free Meal
"I was having casual drinks and some snacks with this girl I'd met on a night out a few days before."
"It was going well, and the chat was flowing."
"Then her friend turned up around two hours in, pretending to bump into her friend, and well, obviously, alarm bells rang."
"Then her friend ordered just a ridiculously expensive meal and bottle of wine. She then switched languages thinking I wouldn't understand and her friend began saying how I was going to have to spend a fortune on her."
"Obviously, I'm not an idiot, I already knew what was up before the language switch, so I excused myself to go to the restroom, which was round the corner, out of sight, but by an exit. I walked passed the restroom, and out the building and just carried on walking to my nearby friend's place instead."
"Would have liked to have seen her and her friend's faces when they realized I'd left and they had a few hundred euros bill of her friend's own doing, her own drinks, plus my drinks on top, lol (laughing out loud)."
"47 missed calls in the next 30 minutes. Call all you like, b***h, I ain't answering."
- X0AN
In Sickness And In Health
"A friend of mine told me about a date she went on. It was great, they both liked each other, and made plans for a second date. They had lots of chemistry."
"But as they left the restaurant, she slipped on some snow and ice, twisting her ankle when she hit the ground. He just laughed at her and walked away."
"He texted later about the second date, and she ignored him."
- VeterinarianCold7119
Minor Details.
"She didn't tell me she was engaged."
- FirenzeJames
"It's okay. She also forgot to tell her fiancé that she was still single!"
- Crissbliss
A Little Too Clingy
"After going out of town for the weekend (this was our first weekend away together, not first date), I dropped her off at her friend's house, which was an hour away from where I lived at the time. I told her I had to get back home to get ready for work the next day."
"She was begging me to stay and hang out some more, and I kept saying I had to get home."
"After about 15 minutes, I went to go to my car to leave. She hopped onto the hood of my car and refused to get off. After 10 more minutes of trying to talk her down, I gave up, got into my car, locked the doors, tilted the seat back, and acted like I was taking a nap."
"She sat on my hood for another 20 minutes or so before it started to rain. That's what finally got her off of my car. 'Fine! Go home! See if I care!' she whined like someone out of a '90s rom-com, and she stormed off into her friend's house. I never contacted her again."
- jda1974
Not Ready For Another Relationship
"We went to a little tea and pastry shop. He kept talking about his ex non-stop and showing pictures of her. Then he 'forgot' his wallet 'because of his depression' and asked me to pay."
"Then when he realized I was not engaging that much in the conversation, he asked me if I friend-zoned him."
"When I answered no, he said, 'Oh' and asked if I wanted to go have sex."
"Hum, no thanks."
- fabulouscow123
The To-Go Purse
"Her ex 'just happened' to be walking outside the restaurant we were at and she invited him in to sit at our table and have dinner with us."
"I protested, but I had to take a leak and the food was arriving. So I went to the bathroom."
"When I came back, the food, my date, and my date's 'ex' had all disappeared."
"The time between this dude sitting at our table, the food arriving, and me coming back from the bathroom was less than five minutes."
"The server told me that they started making out after I left and then just stuffed everything in the lady's purse and ran out."
"The epilogue to this story is: I paid, got a pity dessert from the staff, went to a bar, and then deleted all the apps on my phone. Then re-downloaded them three months later and started the process all over again."
"This was some seven-odd years ago. I am happily married now."
- Shahfluffers
No Manners
"He chewed with his mouth open and talked with a mouthful of food. He chugged his beer, and then asked if I was going to finish mine (it was half full, and I planned on finishing it)."
"I was so grossed out that I let him finish mine so the date would end quicker."
- TaylorSplifftie
"What?! You let a charmer like that slip through your fingers?"
- TesticularPsychosis
"I know! I think I might have made a mistake. I should call him."
- TaylorSplifftie
Quite The Sales Pitch
"We sat down for a few drinks and food at a beer garden."
"She immediately proceeded to tell me how much men love her, men want to be with her, men are obsessed with her, I should be lucky I’m getting this time with her, she’s very high maintenance, and then a group of her friends showed up shortly after to tell me essentially the same thing as they went to go sit at a table about five feet away."
"It was so… strange. I still don’t know if that was supposed to Jedi mind trick me into being obsessed with her or something but it set off enough alarms."
"This was also before any drinks were involved."
- 6FigureBroke
Allergic To Empathy
"I told him beforehand that I have severe food allergies and therefore I don't eat in restaurants much. I was down for any other activity, but a first date is a bad time to try out a new restaurant if you're allergic to living."
"For some reason, he deeply resented this and spent the whole date making passive-aggressive jokes about how people with food allergies suck and probably shouldn't be alive."
- IntrudingAlligator
Complimentary Food
"He took me to a Mexican food restaurant. We got the complimentary chips and salsa, the waiter brought out seconds and water, and the guy kept telling the waiter we needed more time to place our order."
"Once we ate all of the second round of chips and salsa, he decided it was time to leave."
"The dude didn't want me. He just wanted free chips and salsa."
- peregui
"Oh babe, lol (laughing out loud), I'm sorry that happened, but I'm glad you got out before a second date. He probably would have taken you out for Costco samples or something!"
- MyLegIsTired
From strange behavior to stealing to going on a date for free food, there's no question why these dates didn't earn second or third ones. Dating should be fun, but it should also involve common decency and empathy, and those were overwhelmingly lacking here.