Parents

Last month we're celebrating fathers everywhere (in honor of Father's Day), so I'd like to give some kudos to all the single dads out there who are looking for love. There are more of you than ever joining online dating sites and putting yourselves out there because you want a new relationship. (And by the way ladies, single dads make great partners.)

But some of you might need some reassurance. If you aren't dating because you think women don't want to date a man with "baggage," it's simply not true.

Sure, there are some women who won't go on a date with a man who has kids. They aren't for you. But there are also women (with or without children themselves) who are open and interested in finding the right man, regardless of his situation. I know, because I was a single woman who married a man with children.

While single Dads do come attached already (to their kids), there are some big pluses that they have over bachelors any day:

He's emotionally mature. Have you been on a lot of dates with men who play games or drop out of the picture before things get too serious? Single dads are different. They aren't into playing games, because they have their kids to think about. They'll want to get to know you before introducing you to the children. And they'll be more expressive about their wants and needs, instead of making you guess.

He can commit. He has children, which is the biggest commitment you can make in life. Likely he also has an ex wife or girlfriend who he committed to when they had the children together, so he's learned a few things about what works and what doesn't.

You can observe him with his kids. When it comes to dating men with children, actions definitely speak louder than words. The warmth and love and environment he provides for them says a lot about who he really is. Observe and decide for yourself.

He's not selfish. Many bachelors are used to living on their own and answering to no one, which means it can be tough for them to form a relationship where there has to be give and take. With single dads, they give a lot of their time to their children, and they understand sacrifice and compromise. They are anything but selfish.

He has a good sense of humor and is more relaxed. You have to have a sense of humor when raising children, because it's a tough endeavor. Chances are he's learned to relax and not let little things bother him so much. He's more focused on the big picture, and in creating a good life for himself and his children.

Happy belated father's day!

Don't forget that today is Father's Day.

Did you know that single parents make up a large percentage of online daters? On Match.com, 39 percent of male subscribers are single Dads. These single dads are also 46 percent more likely to meet someone on Match.com when compared to the average male who does not have children. This advantage increases, the older the Dad is. Single Dad's who still have children living at home also have a slight higher success rate on Match.com

For you single Moms out there, single Dads are 56 percent more likely to email you than men without children. This is probably the main reason why single Dads have more success on dating sites. The best chance to meet a single Dad online at Match.com is early in the morning (from 6am to 9am). This is when they log into the dating site the most often to browse profiles and send messages.

44 percent of single Dads on Match.com are between the ages of 35 and 45 with 30 percent being 45 to 55 years old. 68 percent of Dads also wait at least 3 months before allowing their date to meet their children.

For more on the story, read "Up To Date" and for further details about this dating site, read our Match.com review.

If you are interested in a dating site just for single parents, check out our review of Single Parent Meet.

There are a couple schools of thought regarding online dating profiles for single parents. I’ll present both and let you decide which rings true for you and your situation.

Don’t Mention Your Children

Your online dating profile is about you, not your children. The only place you need to mention your children is in the stats area where you select “Have kids,” how many, and your custody arrangement.

After all, your potential match isn’t going to be dating your children – they’ll be dating YOU. You are more than a mother or father. Think about what makes you unique and cool that has nothing to do with your children. Eventually they’ll be grown and out of the house and you’ll have to relate to your spouse on other levels.

First eHarmony, the dating site, got its start in 2000. Then in 2006 eHarmony launched its eHarmony Marriage site with its goal to help people to create better and stronger marriages. I notice recently on eHarmony's site that they had launched eHarmony Parenting this past summer. This is a free resource to help and guide parents to raise happy and healthy children. The site contains mainly articles which are arranged by topics like Anger, Discipline and Medical. There are 20 topics in total and the contributors all seem to have professional backgrounds that would make them an expert in this area. If you visit this site don't expect a large number of articles but, the ones they do have are informative.

Why did eHarmony create a resource for parents? Single Parents make up a large part of the online dating market and eHarmony is tapping into this by offering single Moms and Dads a free resource on parenting.

For more on eHarmony read our review. For parenting information visit eHarmony Parenting.

Here is an interesting article for Fathers Day on dating online, for all the Dad's out there.

It seems that the preferred method of dating for single Dads is online dating. The article states, "Three-quarters of respondents said that online dating was the easiest way for single parents to meet others. Two-thirds said that online dating was a safer way to date. ". This makes sense for both single Moms and Dads, since our children make an already busy day much busier and not many people will then have time to meet people, except online.

Single Parents sites are slowly starting to take off, we have reviewed a few of them here:

I first saw this article mentioned on Online Personals Watch.