Dating nowadays...at your 40's

I am a 48-year-old woman who was married for 20 something years and after all that time with the same man (as my mom says, lol) I got a divorce. You know what does that means, right. You are single, after all that time, and you are lost in this new world for you, the dating world.  You might not know what to do and you will, most certainly, receive advice or opinions from a lot of people (friends, family, coworkers, etc.). Everybody nowadays talks about dating as if they are expert on the material.

If you go online you will find a lot of material about dating. The ones I like most are all these “pieces of advice” of things you should or shouldn't do when you are dating. Let me share with you some of them. I’m pretty sure you’ll know a couple. You should not kiss until the second date and/or not have sex until the third. If you do any of the two, your relationship will be doomed. Another one is not to text him first; you should let him do it first because he has to chase you, as well as, do not text him again if he hasn’t replied to you. You should just leave it like that, even if you want to tell him something new. Don’t ask him out is another "advice". He can ask you out any time he wants and as many times he wants but you shouldn't because then he might think you are desperate. Another advice is that one should play hard to get, always, not make it too easy for him. A piece of text advice I found interesting is to wait more than 10 minutes before replying to a text and if he took time to reply to yours, then, you should take the double of that time to reply to him. This is to show him that you’re not available for him all the time. The following one, I think it's ridiculous: you should treat the guy badly because they like that, "bad girls". Really? I guess I’m screwed with this one since I’m a good girl. These are some of the "pieces of advice" you can find on the Internet. Incredible, right. The funny thing is that there's a lot of women who follow them and men who want the women to do so. 

I'm not into these silly "pieces of advice", what you see is what you get with me. I’m not getting any younger and I’m not into playing games. I’m straightforward and will share my feelings every time. If I like him I will say so, if I will like to see him I will say it too. I will ask and share my feelings. I will text when I want and reply, most of the time, right away as I do with everyone. I'm a caring woman, so if I feel like sending a text saying that I hope he made it fine, or to wish a happy day, I will do so.
We are not teenagers anymore. We are adults and we have to behave like one.
I know there's a great man for me out there, who will love and respect me. Maybe I'm about to meet him or, perhaps, I already did. Who knows? I just hope that he isn't into games either, likes to share freely his feelings with me (even if I’m not going to like what he feels), and is not following any of these "rules" or "advice" (LOL). He follows his heart, just like me.



In the meantime...I’ll be enjoying this ride.
Share with me what you think about dating, I will love to know!
Take care, Tere