A Move Past Nick Hornby
About a Boy is a witty novel that follows the relationship between the son of a single mum and his unlikely friend, Will, a shallow man who spends his days listening to music records. Their meeting hilariously comes about because Will is interested in dating single mothers for the specific goal of looking like a good guy in short-term relationships.
He posits that single mothers are seldom ready for new commitments post their break ups with the fathers of their children and thus he can date them for the perfect amount of time, getting dumped rather that dumping them within a few months.
How Does He Do It?
Will meets his single women through a group called SPAT- Single Parents Alone Together- that gets together on a regular basis for solidarity purposes. The 21st century reader no doubt begins to chuckle when he or she realises how far single mothers have come in terms of finding men to date and how easy it is to avoid the predatory men similar to Will’s character at the beginning of the novel. Now groups reminiscent of SPAT can use all sorts of online tools to help the single mum find what she is looking for in her love life.
Contemporary Life- a woven fiber-optic web
Internet networking and online culture have brought along with them new ways of getting to know people and relating our experiences to those around us. This phenomenon has particularly manifested itself in the rise of online dating sites, personal blogs and networking sites. Consequently, it is now easier for people with special interests or dating goals (read: single mums) to find their niche and potentially their other half. In fact, over five million people in the UK alone participate in online dating.
Single Parents, Alone, Together
The ever increasing number of single mum web blogs conveys a sense that “dating as a mum is possible”. From the American Ms. Single Momma to the Single Mum Survival Guide here in the UK there are plenty of resources that help mothers get back on their feet, not only the dating world, but in the rest of their life too! Single mums can now turn to online dating sites to find potential singles and other blogging mums and networking websites for support.
No Man Is an Island
Nowadays sites encourage getting together. What started out as the MySpace ‘phenomenon’ has become Twittering, Facebooking and GChatting. For the single mums of the UK, whether in the London, Edinburgh or Manchester dating scene, or those who are living remotely in the countryside, online dating provides a readily available and productive space to date.
