We’ve all experienced them – boring dates. Either the person talked too much about themselves, or they didn’t have anything interesting to talk about, or they fixated on their past relationships. You don’t want to be a boring date, right? Well, then keep reading to find out how you can avoid being dubbed “the boring date.”
Unless it’s a blind date, people generally have high expectations about dates. They are exciting because it’s all about the unknown – who is this person? What are they like? What will happen at the end of the date? Is this the one? Keep this in mind – your date took the time to get ready in order to impress you, so make sure you don’t let her down by boring her to death.
How To Know If You Are A Boring Date
There are lots of different ways to figure out if you are a boring date. Based on a survey of a few close girlfriends, here’s a list of questions that you can ask yourself to determine whether or not you are a boring date. If you answered yes to any one of these questions, think twice about how you behave and what you talk about on your next date.
- Does your favorite topic of conversation involve yourself? She might ask you some questions about yourself to get to know you better but this is just polite conversation. She doesn’t want to hear about your personal grooming habits for the next two hours.
- Do you answer your cell phone on dates? This is a terrible habit. Unless your mother is in the hospital or some other emergency is occurring, you should not answer your phone. To make it less tempting, turn the damn thing off. If you absolutely have to check it, excuse yourself and go to the bathroom so that she doesn’t see you checking your messages.
- Do you text message your friends while you are on date? If you are sitting there messaging your friends instead of chatting up your date, there’s probably no hope for you.
- Do you talk about things that your date is clearly not interested in? If you happen to be really good at some kind of online video game, that’s nice. Talk to your friends about this, not to your date. Unless you absolutely know she’s interested in the same things as you, don’t dominate the conversation with these boring topics.
- Do you do most of the talking on dates? If yes, then shut up and start listening. If you don’t give her a chance to talk, you will never find out what she’s all about. And, she’ll get really bored listening to you tell stories about yourself.
- Do you talk about your ex? An ex is an ex for good reason – don’t bring them up on a date because it will ruin everything. She’ll wonder why you are talking about your ex and not spending more time getting to know her instead.
- Do you think your jokes are funny but she never cracks a smile? A good sense of humor goes a long way on a date, but if she isn’t laughing, it means that you are boring her with your attempts at lame jokes. Move on.
- Do you brag about yourself? People who talk about how great they are all the time are really annoying. Even if you are great, let her figure that out rather than telling her the 17 reasons why you’re the most awesome person you know.
- Has your date ever gone to the bathroom and then never returned? This is a sure-fire sign that something you are doing is wrong. If you have bored her so much that she runs away at the first opportunity, you need to re-evaluate your entire dating scheme.
How To Avoid A Boring Date
Now that you know if you are boring or not, there are things you can do to avoid a boring date. Here’s a list of things to consider for your next date:
- Do Something Fun: This doesn’t mean you have to engage in high risk adventure activities like mountain climbing, but it does force you to think about what you’ll do on your date. It’s always a good idea to consult your date beforehand to see what she would enjoy doing.
- Ask the women in your life for help: If you are desperate to impress a girl on a date and just don’t know what to do, turn to women for help. Ask your mother, your sisters, or your girlfriends to see what advice they have to offer.
- Relax: this isn’t a marriage – People tend to take dates a little more seriously than they should. The first rule of dating should be to have fun. If your goal on the date is to have fun rather than to impress her, or have sex with her, or marry her, then you are set.
Is There Any Way To Save A Boring Date?
Salvaging a boring date is difficult. If you’ve been talking for two hours about yourself and have suddenly realized she’s not interested, you have a lot of ground to make up. And, if she’s gotten up to use her phone or something, then you might be in big trouble because that probably means she’s looking for a way to get out of the date.
But that doesn’t mean you can make the date better. If you noticed that she’s not talking much, start asking her open-ended questions so that she will have to start talking. Ask about her job, whether she’s done a lot of traveling, what her favorite sports are etc. Avoid talking about touchy subject areas like ex-boyfriends & girlfriends, for example.
Don’t worry – with a little bit of effort even the most snooze-worthy date can come across as interesting and fun!
