Those Re-Entering Dating Game Later In Life Can Use Some Help

Here’s the bad news: dating never gets easy, not even for people in their 60s and beyond.

There’s some good news, as well. Those matchmaking sites so heavily advertised on television can also be of great benefit to people getting back into the dating decades after they thought that aspect of their lives was concluded, although some are opting for a more traditional approach.

“According to AARP, 45 percent of adults 65 and older are divorced, separated or widowed” Ally Ellinmarch wrote in a recent article in The New York Times. “The 60-plus crowd represents the fastest-growing segment in online daters, said Wendy K. Watson and Charlie Stelle, professors of gerontology at Bowling Green State University.

“Since its start just over a year ago, AARP Dating, which has teamed with HowAboutWe, a website, to suggest actual offline dates, has attracted almost 60,000 users, said Michelle Alvarez, an AARP spokeswoman.”

Ellinmarch did note that, as is sometimes the case with email, Facebook accounts and simply looking something up with Google, some in their golden years find computers more than a little daunting.

“Unlike younger daters, who are versed in the special etiquette of digital romance, many older people struggle with it,” the story states. “And that’s why some seniors are calling matchmakers and dating coaches to help them make sense of the whole situation.

“A surprising number of older people don’t use computers at all, and many who do aren’t comfortable using them for dating sites,” Judith Gottesman, a geriatric social worker turned matchmaker who works with Jewish singles of all ages along the West Coast, was quoted as saying.

“About 90 percent of the estimated 3,000 matchmakers in the United States will work with seniors, though not necessarily exclusively, said Lisa Clampitt, co-founder of the Matchmaking Institute, which trains professional matchmakers. But she warns prospective clients, especially women, to ask matchmakers how many older men they have in their database.”

“Older women often get ripped off with empty promises from matchmakers that they have plenty of men for them,” she told the newspaper.

Still, whether it’s through an individual or a website, 60-somethings are finding ways to get back companionship they have lost.