The 'ick': Worst date stories

Lifestyle writers share their icky date experiences

I’VE been on a few dodgy dates in the past but one of them takes the biscuit. It happened to be my first date with a woman as I’d only dated men up until this point. The date itself was lovely: we went driving around my local area, looking at the lights and eating ice cream. We had great sexual chemistry and were definitely emotionally compatible too — or so I thought, until it began to get weird! Even on the first date, she told me within an hour that she could see us marrying and having children together. I like planning ahead but considering this was our first date (as we hadn’t even been friends for that long either) I was startled. Also, the worst part was that this ick I received during the date was sustained (perhaps even worsened) on our second, third and fourth dates. You may be wondering why I even accommodated the thought of second, third and fourth dates but I really liked her. It’s true what they say that when you really like someone, it’s easy to look past their icks. Unfortunately, she became slightly too obsessed with me and began making TikToks about me too, cementing the end of our short relationship. This has not discouraged me from dating women, it was an incredible experience and she helped me discover parts of myself that I realised I’d been hiding from the world. I’ll just make sure next time I clarify that the idea of marriage should not be brought up on the first date!

Anonymous, second year (female)

MY most awkward date has to be during this year of university where I went on a date with a slightly older woman outside of university — it put me off dating people older than me for life!

We met in a pretty standard way (through Hinge) as I thought this would attract fewer people who were just online for the hook-up culture.

Anyway, we met after a few weeks of chatting on Hinge and she was just as beautiful as she looked in the pictures, which I was very pleased about. There was only one small problem: she was with her child! She had decided that breaking the news to me lightly wasn’t the best way to do it and that she wanted to plunge me right in the deep end.

Her son in question was only five but me being 21 and a university student, decided that taking on this extra responsibility was never going to work with my studies and personal endeavours in life. We still had a lovely time and her kid was sweet but this wasn’t going to be enough to make me stay unfortunately. It did teach me a valuable lesson however: that if you are talking to someone on a dating app whom you’ve never met before, make sure you ask of their current family set up as well as future family plans to avoid being on different pages.

Anonymous, third year (male)