The fastest way to never get a meaningful (or fun) date

CNN.com is reporting that the new trend for hip 20- and 30-something singles is to have their parents play the "wingman" role.

A 63-year-old New York City woman, whose best friend is her woefully single 31-year-old son, just launched a Web site called Date My Single Kid.

If her kid gets any dates at all out of this Internet gimmick, they'll be curiosity dates, one-time-deals by women who want to date the guy whose mom made the news...'cause of her dating site.

If you don't know - and you should! - you can probably guess that a "wingman" is a friend who accompanies a single person on a night out and runs interference.

As per the Cowboy Code, a good wingman helps the single person on the prowl attract and woo a desired target.

Back when I was single and cooler than the other side of the pillow, I expected my wingmen to talk to a woman's friends and keep them from sprinkling Haterade on me while I attempted to talk to their friend.

It rarely worked 'cause my wingmen were terrible. And had we all been in the military, they'd have gotten dishonorable discharges for the number of times they left me behind enemy lines with no backup. Me on the other hand? I left it all on the battlefield when I was on wingman duty.

Whatever. One thing I know for certain though, is having your mom or dad sing your praises to a potential date only works in the movies - Cary Grant movies set in a period of time where single adults thought it was adorable that your parents pimped you out.

You want a good date, hone in on someone, approach them sanely, speak to them, and see where it goes. And if that doesn't work, adjust your post-approach conversation.

PS. Follow me, please, at twitter.com/jamesburnett.

Comments

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Man, a truly interesting way to look at some thing that most people find difficult to comprehend. Before this post, I never quite envisaged that this is possible. Having your parents play your wing man...go figure.

Posted by: Emmanuel Peterson | July 24, 2010 at 08:26 AM