Woman Questions If She Was Wrong For Abruptly Leaving A Date After Finding Out The Guy Lied About His Age
The age difference was pretty significant.
cottonbro studio / Pexels It’s easy to lie on the Internet. There’s no one policing it or stopping people from fibbing.
Online dating is no exception.
One woman walked out on a date she met online after learning he was significantly older than she thought.
An anonymous woman posted on Reddit to share her first date horror story and ask if she had done the right thing.
She recalled, “I met a guy online. [He] claimed to be four years older than me, but no big deal, I’m 24. We were interested in the same things and got along well. So, we decided to meet for a drink last weekend.”
When the woman arrived at the bar to meet up with her date, something immediately seemed off.
“I went to the bar and was looking for him, then I [saw] him but he looked different, older,” she said. “I went over and met him and said he looks different than his picture. He said, ‘Oh yeah, those pictures are a few years old.’ I said, ‘But you’re 28, right?’ He said he was actually 42 ‘but age is just a number.’”
The woman felt uncomfortable, so she did the only thing she could think of — leave.
“I got the ick so [I] said I forgot my phone in the car and left,” she said. “He messaged me asking where I was and I said I went home, that I’m not into older guys or being lied to.”
There were a variety of reactions to the woman’s decision to leave.
Her date declared that she “was shallow and that’s why he doesn’t say his real age.” For her part, the woman believed the whole situation was “funny.” A friend she told didn’t think so.
“She said I’m mean for just leaving a date and not even telling him, that maybe he was a nice guy and I’m being judgmental because of his age,” she wrote.
Now, the woman was left wondering if she had done the wrong thing, and most people were largely on her side.
Fellow Reddit users overwhelmingly let the woman know that she was, in fact, not in the wrong. One person addressed the date’s assertion that “age is just a number,” writing, “If it’s just a number, then why lie about it?” they asked. “You’re not wrong. Good for you for leaving.”
“Good for you for not wasting time on someone who will show you on the first date that they don’t have a reasonable moral compass,” another person said.
One commenter applauded the woman for making her safety a priority. “Never feel bad about putting your safety first,” they said. “People will say you should be polite or whatever they might feel is socially acceptable. When young women are faced with situations where their spidey senses start tingling it’s not the time to be polite. That is the time to find the exit, quick!”
While the woman’s date might have been completely harmless, it’s not hard to imagine that something bad could have happened. After all, as one person commented, “If they lie about one thing, they’ll lie about something else.”
Online dating is notoriously difficult to navigate from a safety standpoint.
Online dating is a trendy way to meet people. Forbes reported, “Online dating is still very popular, with nearly three in 10 U.S. adults saying they have used a dating site or app, and more than 40% stating that online dating has made dating easier for them.”
Security company ADT advised that people keep their guard up when online dating. They suggested that you not meet someone you’ve met online in person until you feel completely comfortable, and to always meet in public.
Unfortunately, even when these safety precautions are taken, things can still go wrong — like finding out your date is much older than what they told you.
In those cases, it’s always best to put your safety first and leave if you feel uncomfortable.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.