Not wanting to hang with a girl if they bring their kid?
So as much as I hate to admit it for my age, haven't really had much luck with dating and its started to take a toll on me when most of my friends my age are already married with a family and here I am not even able to say I've had a girl friend unless you count a 2 year long distance one that I never met due to her cheating and getting pregnant with someone else.
I've tried to meet girls acourse, but the few that I've met with kids I've had a lot of negative experiences with and needless to say has opened my eyes up about having children and seriously making me question if I could even mentally handle being a parent.
A female friend of mine that I have a fling with on and off had been telling me for months about how we should see the new Finding Dory movie together when it was out. I did like the idea as I thought it'd be nice to do something that made me feel like a normal person and not an autistic person with bad social skills because someone that knows I'm autistic still wanted to actually do something that involved socializing with me. Its also a pretty big deal to me if I get to do things like go to a movie with a girl as a sadly haven't been able to do that much in my life.
Weds we were set to go, I find out at the last minute that she was bringing her one and a half year old daughter with her. Which made me a bit iffy as I was disappointed that in the end it wouldn't just be me and her, and I was nervous about a kid her age in a movie theater, but I figured being a kids movie it might not be that bad.
We get there, the movie starts playing, I think her daughter cared about the movie for all about 10 mins and than coulda cared less after that. Wouldn't wanna stay sitting down in her chair, kept frequently making shrieks and loud noises for no reason, which started to bother me a lot as it was putting me into sensory overload with trying to pay attention to a movie but not being able to very well with the constant and random noises from her daughter. At one point it got so bad that she started to throw a screaming tantrum for being mad that she couldn't leave her seat and run around, so my friend had to take her out of the theater for a bit and I think everyone else in there was probably like "thank god shes gone!". I wanted to just leave the movie and sit in my room alone when it was all happening, but that wasn't really an option because my friend and her daughter had rode with me there.
After the movie was over I was kinda quiet and didn't talk much the whole ride when I took her back home. Later that night I texted her and told her I wasn't mad or blaming her for anything as I know kids her age do that sometimes, but that the whole experience for me during that movie and her daughter doing what she did was very unpleasant and uncomfortable for me and if I seemed quiet or down afterwards that was why. I basically told her that if we saw any movies in the future that I wasn't doing that again, meaning if she has to bring her daughter and having a repeat of that with putting me in sensory overload and making me uncomfortable.
I feel like I am at a never ending cross roads sometimes. At my age its nearly impossible to find someone my age give or take that doesn't already have 2-3 kids before they made it to 21. I don't necessarily hate kids, but I run into things where a lot of times a girl can't be kid-less and has to bring their kid along to something like a movie date, and than stuff like what I mention happens. But in my city sadly finding a girl without a kid is almost like a needle in a haystack at this point, and I'm not quitting my job and moving somewhere else just to see if its any better. If its my fate to never find anyone, thats life, and its not always like movies and romance novels.
That's the way 1 1/2 year old babies are. The shriek randomly. The don't know any better.
I can understand why you wouldn't want a girl to bring her kid--but there are times when she might not have been able to get a babysitter, so she was forced to bring the child. You can't exactly leave a child home alone!
I can also understand how one can feel awkward in the presence of kids. I would feel pretty awkward, actually.
But...if you really like the girl, I wouldn't preclude myself from dating her because she has children. I would just tell her that, sometimes, you would like to be ALONE with her on a date.
But...if you really like the girl, I wouldn't preclude myself from dating her because she has children. I would just tell her that, sometimes, you would like to be ALONE with her on a date.
The girl in question with my story I would not date, unfortunately she broke my trust of that ever happening when I found out that apparently she saw nothing wrong with being sexual with me at times when she had a "boy friend" in the navy over seas. Needless to say that was an event in itself when I found out about it and confronted her about it. I moved on and still chose to be her friend because I don't believe in holding grudges forever, just like I said, this girl will never be someone I will trust in terms of anything more than friends.
My post's intent was mostly wanting to hear about other autistic peoples' thoughts on trying to date or do things in public with young children that can make it very difficult for someone like me with going into sensory overload and what not.
I agree that this sort of situation could be difficult for an autistic person.
I've had girlfriends with kids--I once had one with many kids.
I had a hard time babysitting kids when the girl was away doing something. They would try to take advantage of the lack of the presence of their mother, and to tell me, if they were doing something wrong, that I couldn't discipline them because I wasn't their father. That was a problem. They would try to take advantage of my disadvantageous position. That was quite stressful.
Personally I wouldn't even date someone with kids. I know it doesn't make them a bad person, but I don't like kids. They stress me out.
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Then no one should be taking a child that age to a movie theatre. I'm guessing this is her first child and she didn't realise that her kid's was a bit too young to enjoy a feature length film just sitting in a dark theatre so I can cut her some slack, but it's really expensive to see a movie these days. Imagine you've shelled out for you, your partner and 2 kids and someone else's kid is shrieking the place down. Finding Dory ruined. Movie theatres shouldn't allow children under 4.
That's why people get babysitters.
I disagree with this. If you know yourself well enough to work out that you don't want children then you are not obligated to date anyone with children. Some people do change their mind, but for people like me and the op who have sound related sensory issues, screaming kids are unbearable. Honestly I'd only go out with a parent if the kids were at least 8 years old.
nick007
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Perhaps you could look for an older woman who has older kids instead of little kids like maybe teenagers.
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Then no one should be taking a child that age to a movie theatre. I'm guessing this is her first child and she didn't realise that her kid's was a bit too young to enjoy a feature length film just sitting in a dark theatre so I can cut her some slack, but it's really expensive to see a movie these days. Imagine you've shelled out for you, your partner and 2 kids and someone else's kid is shrieking the place down. Finding Dory ruined. Movie theatres shouldn't allow children under 4.
Nope, actually her second child. One of the typical girls in my city that didn't even make it to her 21st bday and had a second kid (from a different person that her first baby daddy).
And I'm not really looking to date someone older with older kids. Between my other negative experiences, and that, it was just another reminder that kids probably aren't for me or in my future.
I really like the way you handled that situation by telling her exactly how you felt, that can be difficult at times because people may not understand but it is a good way to know who in your life is worth keeping around.
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"I was born in a world where I don't fit in, so I guess the only choice is make a new one"
Yes, you have to draw lines for the sake of your own sanity when it comes to sensory issues and what you can cope with, however
I think the use of the word unpleasant was a bit too far. I totally get it, some sounds are just nothing other than unpleasant. But no one wants to be told that their child, whom they love unconditionally is unpleasant. Not many people are going to stick around someone rude enough to say that about their kid.
You can express how you truly feel and show a bit of empathy for how other people feel. It's called tact.
The_Face_of_Boo
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I wouldn't go into a serious relationship with someone with kids.
I am totally in experienced in this department any commitment scare, thr idea of marriage scary me even more ; imagine you are adding to this the stress of becoming a father figure the moment you live with her.
Marrying a single mom would feel like you are becoming a husband and a father all in one shot.
Single moms often don't understand that and they get offended when they are rejected for being... moms.
Single moms often don't understand that and they get offended when they are rejected for being... moms.
With my experience anyways, its not so much that they're "moms", it because the children make it unbearable. When I meet someone and find out they have a child, I'll express my concern about it after my negative experiences and the mom will go "oh, don't worry. He is very well behaved" After only being with them for an hour I can tell that they're idea of "well behaved" is vastly different than mine. I know kids act out sometimes, but when a parent repeatedly has to tell a child not to do something over and over and never actually follow through with enforcement or discipline, that is not well behaved and shows that your child has zero respect for you and that you have no control of your child.
An example I had one time was when a girl brought her kid into a store and told him if he acted up one more time, he would not get any ice cream afterwards. After being told 12+ times throughout the trip, still got ice cream in the end. Stuff like this is what I see a lot with single mothers in my town atleast, and yet they're dumbfounded why they're kid is an absolute monster by the time they make it to age 5.
nick007
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Joined: 4 May 2010
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Location: was Louisiana but now Vermont in capitalistic military dictatorship called USA
I am totally in experienced in this department any commitment scare, thr idea of marriage scary me even more ; imagine you are adding to this the stress of becoming a father figure the moment you live with her.
Marrying a single mom would feel like you are becoming a husband and a father all in one shot.
Single moms often don't understand that and they get offended when they are rejected for being... moms.
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Same here. Just not a thing I could do. Too many complications in an already complicated equation. Two people are hard enough to account for in a relationship.
If you don't like kids, or can't handle them, you shouldn't be dating women with kids then. I just think it's a bad idea. It's bad for her and for the kids and for you. Find someone without kids. There's plenty. Esp early mid 20s.
You don't obviously want a chick whos looking for replacement daddy. OR one who's super fertile and just pops kids out. You'll have her pregnant in no time, then what?
If she's really willing to neglect her kid to date some guy, then, she's probably not worth dating unless you're just trying to get banged. At which point disregard all of this, because, you're just trying to get banged. But if you are looking for a relationship, even a pretty casual one, if she has kids it's not gonna work for you. Period. UNLESS you can change and adapt to deal with them much better.
Now all of this sounds like I'm slamming single moms. Not at all. I was raised by one. I just think if you plan on dating someone in that situation you have to be mature enough, and the kind of person adapted to making that work in a healthy way for you, her and the kid(s).
That sounds great and inspirational, but the reality of it is, its not really that simple. My city alone, the county average for teen births is DOUBLE the state average, and keeps going up as of 2009 while the state goes down. Thats why I said earlier in my post, its nearly impossible to find a girl here past 21 that doesn't have multiple kids by than, because chances are most do (and with multiple people). I have to laugh on the news when I hear once in awhile that the teen births in america has gone down, because clearly they didn't count my city. Again. I'm not saying single parents are bad, my best friend is married and has children, but the difference between her kids is that they act civilized and are controllable in public. Meaning I can eat at a restaurant with them and her and we won't have any incidents where everybody has to stop and stare at our table.
I'm sure my city isn't the only one with this problem, but as I also said, I'm not just gonna pack up, quit my job, and move somewhere else to see if things are better.
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