In a few love-focused TV shows — "Sex and the City," "The Mindy Project," "How I Met Your Mother," etc. — we can expect the characters to finish off a given season in the double-digit range for dates or hookups they’ve accumulated.
While I am fascinated with the concept of serial dating, I’m often left wondering, "Does it work in real life, or is this style of dating better left played out on-screen?"
If we think about it, most of us (myself included) have simply been jumping from relationship to relationship since high school and beyond.
One dinner date can sometimes turn in a three-year relationship or longer.
In my group of friends alone, I only know one serial dater. I’m always entertained by her exciting stories, but one night she left me in a panic after she announced she had been on five dates in the span of one week. Five!
That’s more dates than I’ve ever been on in my entire life.
Crazy, right?
But, just like the characters in TV shows, the dating stops, and they fall in love. Carrie gets Big. Mindy gets Danny. And, Ted from "How I Met Your Mother" finally — we’re talking 10 seasons too long — meets his wife.
The end.
The rest of us just live vicariously through their dating lives and are left alone, sitting in our sweats for the third day in a row.
Here are five reasons why it may be time to enter the sometimes crazy, but generally exciting world of serial dating:
It can be liberating.
You can approach serial dating with reckless abandon. Anything goes. Yes, there may be a few duds along the way, but you may also meet a few gems.
You’ll be left with a heightened sense of what you do and don’t want in a partner, an improved knowledge of sex and exciting stories to share over drinks with your friends.
Guys do it.
I'm always hearing from my guy friends about how they’re currently wheeling and dealing three girls or more at a time. "We're testing the waters," they say. And I think females have the right to do the same.
Screw the double standard that says a guy is the man if he has plenty of dates while a girl is looked down upon as a tramp for doing the same thing.
It’s our bodies, our minds and our freedom to date on our own terms.
It’s a chance to put yourself out there.
Unless your house is continually circulated by hot door-to-door salesmen, it may be hard to find romance by staying inside day in and day out. T
rying your hand at serial dating opens the doors for meeting new people and gaining life experiences.
You may even leave feeling more confident in your ability to take a chance and put yourself out there.
You might meet "the one."
Just think about it: A lot of dating means meeting new people, narrowing your criteria of what you want and gaining confidence, which are all things that attract others.
Sure, you may go through a few frogs before you find your prince, but it can be worth it.
You won’t have to look back on your younger years and regret any of the things you didn’t do.
It takes away the "what ifs." (What if your soul mate is still out there? What if you settled down too young?)
Serial dating can assuage those fears and make it that much more special when you do finally find the one beyond the TV screen, waiting for a love like yours.
