Dating is hard. Dating is harder if you have terrible taste in potential partners. Sincerely, I hope if you’re lonely you do find someone. Sadly, you will have to overlook some things, and that’s all right. Your partner will have to overlook some things about you. The important part, of course, is communication. Tell your partner every day that you love them, then immediately list their flaws. That’s love. That’s connection. In fact, the world would be much better if we were 100% honest with each other. I’m joking, of course. Don’t do that. People who are honest all the time (while not necessarily being monsters) do not think about the feelings of others. Thankfully, the people on this list got out of dating someone before things got too heavy.
One person on Reddit had a simple question: “What was the pettiest reason you refused to date someone?” People had tons of stories about the moment they knew they had to end a date or, worse, end a relationship. Nobody’s perfect. But, some people are not compatible, and while some call it petty, other people call it “the right move.” Me. I say all these people are right to dump their significant other, no matter how small the reason. Good for you.
Here are the best responses to a question about the petty reasons someone dumped another person:
1. The apolitical candidate.
“He stared at me blankly when I said the word “republican” when describing one of my family members. I followed up and sure enough, he literally had no idea what the word republican meant and didn’t know about our largely two-party system. He was in his late 20’s. If you’re not into politics, that’s one thing, but he had managed to live nearly three decades in our country without knowing basic information about our political system. My brain could not comprehend and I worried about what other basic information he had managed to avoid was. ‘Twas a hard no on my end.” –DuchessOfTears
2. You would lie… to children? About… animals?!?”
“She was a volunteer at the Zoo and when kids asked her questions she didn’t know the answer to, she would make something up and lie.
Growing up on zoobooks and Steve Irwin, I take animal facts very seriously.” –captjackjack
3. Sorry, but for those reasons, I’m out.
“My new car kept scraping on the bottom while pulling out of their steep driveway to the main road. After the fourth time of trying to be careful and it still scraped.” –fkingtrashcan
4. I think you found the love of MY life, but not yours.
“Went on a first date to the movies. This fucking guy…instead of picking up his drink and lifting the straw to his mouth, he would put his hands on his knees, keeping his eyes on the screen, and lean over to the drink and ‘hunt’ for the straw with his face and his mouth contorted sideways trying to land on the straw. Weirdest shit ever.” –Pocketeer1
5. OK, but what if she buys you a kiddie cone for old time’s sake?
“A very attractive, fun, smart woman asked me if I wanted to go get ice cream with her. I turned her down but I guess in a way that she felt was flirty, so she kept asking. And finally I had to tell her I was turning her down because she had both my mother’s first and last name. She laughed a lot and agreed we couldn’t date.” –notabot99_thousand
6. Good call.
“She was super hot, but she smelled. I dunno if she didn’t shower or use deodorant, but she just smelled funky. I couldn’t do it. My best girl friend at the time was like, “just tell her”. How do you tell a girl you’ve known for a few weeks that she smells bad?!?! So I just stopped talking to her. Brilliant.” –OmgOgan
7. She’s only seen the Robin Hood cartoon.
“She didn’t know that foxes were real animals. She thought they were mythical and just in movies.” –rpp8
8. A dealbreaker for me too.
“Her complete inability to follow the plot of a movie.
“Who’s that?”
“Where’d he come from?”
“Why’d she do that?”
“Who is he again?”
I just couldn’t.” –Jealous-Network-8852
9. Writing skills.
“He would call me his “beautiful angle”. He really didn’t know how to spell angel so for 5 months I put up with being an angle.
Also dated a guy who wanted to put a singlewide trailer on his parent’s front lawn and thought I was unreasonable for not wanting to move in with him once he did so.” –Nicole_xx19
10. Was it a euphemism?
“A guy on a dating app said he wouldn’t date me because I didn’t like oysters.” –Awkward_turtle404
11. Was she a robot?
“She would insist on a job interview level of formality whenever we talked.
For those asking for examples, the first time I asked her to my place went like this:
Me: So do you want to take this back to my place?
Her: Is this an invitation for intercourse?
Me: … yes… it is…
Her: Please ask again properly please.” –Not-an-Ocelot
12. Who’s the weird one, really?
“Not me, but someone refusing to date me because, “it’s weird you don’t have Instagram.” –thepoint29
13. Sounds like a keeper.
“He wore a Bluetooth piece in his ear. The constant blue light blinking from the side of his head was too much for me. Another guy would text “dame” instead of “damn”. It wasn’t a typo either, it was every time.” –ldgrffn
14. The guy at the store said it looked good ten years ago.
“He was wearing a hideous brown fake leather jacket, it was so old that the ‘leather’ had started to flake off and parts were just now canvas.
He kept stopping to look at himself in windows and saying ‘oh god I look so hot today’ ‘I just can’t believe how hot I look’ smoothing down his manky jacket, side eyeing me, expecting me to agree with him.
I left so he could be alone with his jacket.” –LeonardBetts88
15. The thin line between grammar police and just having taste.
“All The Words In Every Text He Sent Were Capitalised. Trust Me, It Got ANNOYING.” –Daffodildandy