Last updated on October 3, 2017 | by Aet Suvari

Are you ready for a family?

Virtually every person who signs up to an online dating site is looking for a relationship. Well, at least some kind of a relationship – maybe just even a penpal but I’m sure that more often than not people are hoping to find true love on a dating site. However, love dosn’t always mean the same thing these days. There used to be a time when love and marriage and family were all synonyms but this is no longer the case. There can be love without a wedding and there most certainly can be love without children.

It’s a heartbreaking thing – to fall in love and then find out the other party isn’t interested in having the same kind of future as you. You then have to face an excruciating choice of either giving up your dream or giving up your love. No one should be presented with that kind of a choice. But it’s a difficult one. It’s just not considered to be cool to talk about wanting to have children on your first date. Or even a second. Because there’s always time for that, right? Except the next thing you know you’re head over heels in love and trapped in an unhappy relationship.

So how do you avoid it? A French guy living in Denmark came up with a clever idea – he created a dating site for people who want to have children. And even in such a small country as Denmark the site proved to be an instant hit. Loads of people signed up in the first few months and they all had one thing in common: they all wanted to start a family but had felt too embarrassed to admit it on any other dating site let alone their first date.

The Danish site is called Babyklar.nu and means something like Baby-ready now in English. We assume that people who sign up there are not vague about wanting to have children because while most dating sites mention ‘wanting kids’ the answers often fall in the muddled territory of ‘maybe’, ‘someday’ or ‘not sure’. It’s just easier this way. After all, you don’t want to scare anyone away, you want to keep your options open. Right? Wrong! Wanting kids is not something embarrassing – just like not wanting them isn’t shameful – and we should all say it loud and say it proud what it is what we are looking for.

Now all we can wish for is for someone to make a site like that in UK. Sounds like there’s a definite gap in the market…

About the Author

Aet Suvari has been reviewing and writing about the world of online dating since 2008 and the launch of Online Dating Help. A stickler for promoting ethical practices within the UK dating industry she champions the sites that get it right while highlighting those holding it back. You can follow her on Google+