Red Flags - Am I the only one?
I (52F) get that certainly at our age, many of us have "done the work" and figured out exactly who we are, and what we want (I certainly have) and we feel we're too old to put up with time wasters and getting messed around. But I also have a circle of considerably younger friends (20s and 30s) and I'm seeing what I'm about to mention going on in their generation too, and it concerns me.
Am I the only one who's very concerned about the fact that everyone seems to be out there looking for "red flags" and hold absolutely no space for mistakes? It's like someone says or does something human, makes a mistake, and thats red flag one, and if they make another mistake, even completely unrelated, that's it! Game over! It's like everyone's complaining they cant find anyone, yet they start every encounter with one foot out the door. People literally meeting for coffee, a first date, not looking for "could you be someone special?" but "what's the reason you don't measure up?"
I find it drastically disheartening. Like, not everything is a red flag. Sometimes it literally is just a case of misspeaking, sticking your foot in your mouth, especially when texting and there's no tone and it's been misconstrued. I honestly feel like I don't want to date anymore, because genuinely I'm NOT perfect and I'm never going to measure up to the standards people seem to hold.
What happened to compassion? What happened to forgiveness? How does anyone get to a level of people proving they are worth your time if you bail out before you ever really even know them? Have we all become so fragile that we can't see a storm in a teacup? Or are we all so entitled we honestly believe we deserve nothing less than perfection? I just think 8 billion people are going to end up very lonely because we aren't willing to accept we're all flawed.
Am I the only one?