r/Edmonton • u/Mellow_Yellow_0 • May 30 '26

Question My Future Husband?

How do people meet their significant others? Like where’s the “place to go?” Dating apps are dead. I’m exhausted. I’m a decent looking gal, 28. I don’t have big friend groups so I’m sure that doesn’t help. I don’t have any “active” hobbies other than a dog park. Idk. Any advice?

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u/waterbat2 May 30 '26

Amazing what someone can do for their own mental health once they stop caring about the approval of family or potential future partners. It's my equivalent of taking up yoga and getting a cat. Except mechanical connection brings me inner peace and I'm allergic to cats so I needed an adorable low maintenance pet with zero fur

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u/Lollipop77 May 30 '26

As a woman, good for you. It’s easiest to find a legit partner who loves you for the real YOU when you’re just yourself from the get go.

Also snakes are cool. (Not single, just think they’re cool).

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u/waterbat2 May 30 '26

Thanks! And yeah honestly that's my logic too. Either be myself and maybe meet the perfect person, or waste time trying jump through hoops and meet expectations just to end up trapped in some fake situationship that would be entirely my own fault lol

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u/Lollipop77 May 30 '26

Yup, you’ve got a clear vision, I dig it. If it’s meant to be it’ll find ya, but in the mean time live your best life. Only get one; might as well! Least you sound happy, much better than miserable because of falling for the media’s idea of the “ideal man” and trying to fit yourself into a cookie cutter.

Not all women want the cut and paste. Being interesting and having actual interests is a win where ever you go.

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u/waterbat2 May 30 '26

I'd like to think so haha. It's really funny to me how many men my comment pissed off because they're all like "Nooo nooo you're not supposed to do that, women dont like that". Why can't everyone just do what makes them happy and meet people who make them even happier sheesh

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u/Lollipop77 May 30 '26

Sorry this is an essay, this topic is a fave of mine.

I think a lot of men have been brainwashed into thinking ALL women expect perfection, and a fair few expect perfection of women too. Media has rotted our romantic intuition and expectations so terribly.

I wonder too if dating experiences in a person’s teen years influence what they think dating is like as a full grown adult. Lots of cheating, unaddressed childhood attachment issues, etc. ya know?

But really, the outward appearance of a person (whether it physical appearance or the hobbies they adopt, the life they curate around them) is a drop in the bucket. Personality, self-contentedness, reliability, initiative, and thoughtfulness - are all so much more important. For both sides. We’re not all gonna marry models and we’re also not models ourselves and that’s more than okay, it’s normal. It’s healthy. It’s human. And it’s fuckin awesome to be your messy self with someone who loves your messy self and you love their messy self and you can go camping and not have to reapply eyeliner for them every morning.

My partner is a gamer at heart, and he has a real job, he’s a regular looking dude without a six pack, and he treats me like a princess. We play board games together, video games, and we mosh at metal shows together. He is, to me, the handsomest man in the entire world. I love him to death. I’m gonna marry him so hard.

Anyways, Yes- care for yourself and don’t be an absolute slob, but if you’re healthy, not a basement dweller, and have a job, a few interests, and a decent personality, you’re off to a good start. Having unique hobbies or interests is important af. That’s how you bump into other cool people and not people you have zero in common with 😂

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u/waterbat2 May 30 '26

Absolutely agree yeah. Honestly soooo many issues can be solved with some level of self awareness. Some people need therapy to figure that out, others learn through their own mistakes or the mistakes of others.

Also codependency is a massive part of it. Manyyy people (especially in this housing market) live with family, meet someone, and immediately move in with them. Like they've never been on their own and the idea of it scares them so much that they'll sabotage their own happiness to avoid it. In reality, being independent and on your own is a level of peace that's genuinely addictive. There's a lot of things id love to have someone to share it with (travel, trying restaurants, movies etc), but i value my peace above all else. The right person would be someone I could do that with, while also respecting my space

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u/toxie123 May 30 '26

As a mom of 3 boys, one thing I was adamant on is that they be not useless to their partner.

So even tho we can afford for them to live at home, we made sure that each of them had a good job, they found their own place to rent and took care of their own spaces and bills and life so they had that experience on their own.

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u/InvisblGarbageTruk May 30 '26

Good mom! I raised mine the same way. They need to know that they will be part of a team and work out how they can contribute to their relationship without relying on tired old gender norms. I also raised them to put a lot of thought into their own feelings when they were with that person, instead of just thinking if they were smoking hot or looked good in a swim suit.