單身媽媽們想對約會對象說……

I've been a single mom for about four years now, and I can honestly say that it's changed me for the better. My dating life? 's a different story. While I haven't been on a ton of dates (because, hello, when do I have time for that?!), there are some things that are just too true about dating as a single mom to I'm sure all single moms can agree.

至今爲止，我已當了4年的單身母親，我可以很誠實的告訴你：成爲單身母親讓我成爲更好的人。我的約會生活？額……那就是個不一樣的故事了。雖然我沒有約會很多次（因爲我哪有時間約會啊？！），但作爲單身母親有些事情太過真實無法讓人忽視……我相信所有的單身母親都會贊同我的觀點。

1. Pretty much everything must be planned in advance.

1. 幾乎一切事情都需提前計劃好。

Remember those carefree evenings when you would go out on a date and you'd be able to let the night linger on forever - even if the date was mediocre - because you had nothing else to do? Yeah, those are the paleolithic years of my dating life. Now, I can't just drop everything that I am doing to hang out with a man for hours at a time. Outside of the usual and already time-consuming date night prep (like, you know, shaving my legs...), I have to make sure that my kid is well-cared for while I'm out, since I'm not the only person at stake here.

你可以外出約會，夜晚想待在外面多久就可以多久——即使約會對象很普通——因爲你無事可做，還記得這些無憂無慮的夜晚嗎？是的，這是我約會生活的舊石器年代。現在，我無法爲了每次出去與男生約會好幾個小時而放下手裏的活兒。除了那些爲了約會之夜所做的普通耗時準備（比如，你懂的，刮腿毛等），我還要確保自己出門約會的時候孩子被人照顧的很好，因爲我不是唯一一個處境危險的人。

2. My time is extremely precious.

2. 我的時間尤爲珍貴。

Children can take a lot out of you mentally as well as physically, so if there is ever a child-free moment in time, I typically prefer to spend it laying on my couch, binging on Netflix shows and drinking copious amounts of wine. But let's be real: There's most likely some serious housework that needs to be done. Yes, folding a pile of laundry is probably not as fun as going out on a date, but if it needs to get done, I'd rather just knock it out then go out with someone who might not be worth it in the long run at all. To that point, I really appreciate it when someone puts in the effort to try and make our time spent together well worth use there's nothing worse than thinking I could be doing laundry while I'm on a date.

孩子們會讓你消耗太多的精力和腦力，所以如果孩子不在身邊，我通常會躺在沙發上、看Netflix的電視、大口大口的喝紅酒。但讓我們現實點：很有可能我需要完成大量的家務活兒。是的，疊一堆衣服可能沒有出門約會那麼開心，但如果需要完成的話，我寧願對其不理不睬然後與根本不值得廝守終身的人約會。對於這點來說，如果有人十分努力以讓我們在一起的時光很值得，那我真的十分感激，因爲沒有什麼比約會時我卻想着本來可以洗衣服更糟糕的事情了。