Ah, the first date. For most, it’s those first awkward steps into a relationship, like a baby giraffe trying to find its first footing. Some things help the date go smoothly, some act as speedbumps and can very quickly bring the date to a screeching halt. In the movies, usually it’s the man that says something to make his date suddenly want to go home. But surely it isn’t all our fault, surely there are occasions when women say the wrong thing and make the man lose all hope of any sort of relationship working out. In an attempt to prevent such a thing from ever happening again, we’ve put together a comprehensive list of the top seven things a woman should never talk about on the first date…
- Marriage – Unless you’re looking to end the date quickly, don’t bring up marriage. As a matter of fact, it’s best you don’t mention future anythings for right now. Focus on the here and now, you know? Men want to get to know you before they marry you (this isn’t Vegas, folks), and a first date is the perfect place to start doing that. Tell him about yourself, your travels, but never, ever start the date off telling him about…
- Dead pets – Yeah, no. Look, we’ve all had our beloved pets die. My cat, Thomas, died after a solid nine years of living a very prosperous cat life. Am I going to bring him up in a date? No. Why? Because there’s no reason to. Unless your date brings up his dead pet first (which is a no-no on his end anyway), there’s no need to discuss dearly departed companions. There’s a difference between discussion of healthy animals you might like or own…but depressing discussion of your dead pets is sure to stir up emotions, and the last thing a guy wants is for his date to start crying in the middle of the first date.
- Past relationships – This should be a no brainer, but don’t mention your past relationships unless he asks you about them. Comments like, “My last boyfriend was so different from you” is a statement to stay away from, even if it has good intentions. No matter how much he might remind you of your last guy, or how different he may in fact be from your last relationship, there’s no need to bring up the past right now. Again, focus on the here and now. No man wants to hear the long story about your last relationship, which takes away from precious time you two could be using to connect over other topics.
- Relationship pessimism – So you don’t like relationships. So your friend set you up on this blind date. So what? See where things go, let the guy try to make you laugh. We don’t want to hear you groan about how relationships never work out for you and you hate them and how guys always want to use you for other things. Things like…
- Sex – The Holy Grail for many men. For some reason, we have the mindset that we deserve to get laid after the third date, as if the third date presents any special meaning…any tangible connection. While sex is both healthy (it should be, anyway – have you been tested? Moreover, has he been tested?) and fun, we don’t want to hear about your previous sexual exploits with other guys…at least not on the first date. That street goes both ways, too, because we’re sure you don’t want to hear about our sexual conquests either!
- Not eating anything – More of an act than a saying, but let’s say the first date is a nice dinner at a nice restaurant (not Applebee’s). Things are going to be a little awkward anyway, why make it worse by ordering just a salad while he orders a full entrée? Then you finish eating before he does, and you’re sitting there wondering when he’ll finish so you can talk about things or go on to the next part of the date when in reality, it was kind of rude of you to order a small next-to-nothing while he ordered a full meal.
- Being a know-it-all – We get it, you graduated top of your class from a prestigious university, you don’t need to correct me when I get the name of a country (or anything else for that matter) wrong. Once or twice is okay, and even then only in a laughing matter. Three, four, five or more times gets to be a bit much and makes us want to stop talking to you about anything and everything in general.
There you have it – the top seven things men don’t want to hear about on the first date. While there are surely many other things men may not want to hear about, the above listed should paint a fairly accurate picture of what you should discuss. But now we’re interested, is there anything you’d prefer a man to not talk about on the first date? Any topics he should steer clear of? Let us know in the comment section below!