Recently Reddit user u/NicMakVelli asked the community: "What dating myths need to vanish and die?"
Welp, folks didn't hold *anything* back and revealed some of the most ridiculous dating habits that are simply untrue.
So, here are some dating myths that'll probably change your perspective on your own love life:
1. "That you shouldn’t talk about wanting/not wanting kids or general life and relationship goals on the first date. If you’re both looking for the same kind of relationship but one wants kids and the other one doesn’t, why would you not wanna get that out of the way? This way, neither of you are wasting the other’s or your own time."
2. "Men love to 'chase' women and enjoy the challenge of convincing an uninterested woman to go out with them (or that men like it when women 'play hard to get')."
3. "You should wait three days after a date to message/call the person. Three days with no contact and I would think the guy wasn't interested at all, and lose interest. I hate stupid dating rules!"
4. "That you have to really like each other to go on a date. Since the whole point of dating is to 'determine compatibility,' you don’t have to already be in love or know you’re compatible to go out..."
"I dated a girl once who after two dates told me, 'I'm sorry, but I don't feel like I love you, so I don't think we can continue this.' This confused me because after two dates I didn't love her, either.
But she was insistent that dating only worked if she immediately fell in love with her partner. I wished her good luck with that perspective in the future."
5. "Guys want sex on every date, every time, all the time. Sometimes we just want to be with you or go do something fun together."
6. "That people who are 'too old' and don't have experience can’t date. I’m here to tell you that the right person will not care that you’re in your thirties (or however old you are) without 'experience.' They want to date you because they like you, and they’re attracted to you and they want to have a relationship with you. Everyone I’ve talked to outside of social media has said the same thing."
7. "Insulting an attractive person draws them to you (no it doesn’t). People (often guys) do this thinking that the cute girl must have an ego and needs to be 'taken down a notch.' But that approach only works on people with low self-worth, and it makes the person doing it look like a bitter tool bag."
8. "The whole 'all women only want a guy who’s 6 feet tall, rich, has six pack, and is an asshole.' Like, any grown man who believes this is a lost cause and nothing will change their mind. I hate to see this poison the minds of young straight men who still have potential to have 'normal' relationships with women."
9. "You need to wait to say 'I love you' because of the 'three-month rule.' The 'three-month rule' is when you lose feelings after three months, which is BS. Say you love your partner as early as you want."
10. "Girls need to wait for guys to make the first move. They're nervous, too!"
11. "Straight men aren't attracted to women who make the first move. While it can be true that some men like to 'chase,' if you make a first move and a guy doesn't like you, it's more likely you just got rejected because he didn't like you. It's what happens most of the time when you ask people out instead of being asked."
12. "That height, weight, wealth, or genital sizes determine if you're a human being worth even getting to know. People are so busy fighting over these things that they are potentially missing out on meeting good people that could simply be friends (or more, if you choose)."
13. "Girls don’t like to be asked out in person!!! Every guy I’ve talked to about this seems to believe this because 1. They’ve been rejected a few times and now think that means no one wants to be asked out and 2. They are using terrible pickup lines that they don’t realize sound creepy from a woman’s perspective."
14. "You can/should only date in the pursuit of everlasting love, and anything else is automatically 'wrong.'"
15. "That sex is mandatory while dating."
16. "Things will sort themselves out (they won't), and that you'll be able to just go with the flow forever. Relationships take effort from both sides — you're always risking what you have, but if you get it back in return, it's definitely worth it."
17. And finally: "You have to wait a while before moving onto another relationship after your last one ends. I get it that some people may want to wait in order to process stuff, but that doesn't mean everyone needs to. There's no reason to judge people if they don't (or do) need time after a relationship ends."
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.