When should I tell someone I have children?
Early and plainly is kindest to everyone — in your profile or in the first conversation, as a fact rather than a confession. You are not auditioning for a role; you are establishing the actual shape of your life so that anyone continuing is continuing on real information. Introductions between a new partner and your children are an entirely separate decision, and one worth taking slowly, long after the first month.
Is it normal to feel humiliated by the whole process?
Yes, and it says nothing about your worth. Being visible and available is exposing at any age, and the modern format — being browsed, being unmatched, being left on read — adds a layer of small, impersonal rejections that would sting anybody. The antidote is not thicker skin but shorter exposure: fewer apps, fewer open conversations, and real life continuing loudly enough that this is one part of your week rather than a referendum on you.
The thing to keep hold of
The version of this that goes well is rarely the one with the best story. It is usually the woman who kept seeing her friends, kept her Saturdays, and treated meeting people as something she was doing rather than something being done to her. Go slowly. Notice how someone makes you feel in the twenty minutes after you part, not just during. And give yourself permission to stop for a season and start again later, because there is no deadline on this and never was.
