What Makes A Good First Date?

What makes a first date fun? While there are many factors affecting what you and your date will define as \"fun,\" there are some universal dating rules that will affect your, your date's (and your friends') perception of your first date.

Being on time and dressed attractively and appropriately for whatever you've planned to do is key. Your date is going to be unimpressed if you can't get your act together. Even more importantly, be nice! Now is not the time for sarcastic wit or showing off a bad temper.

Second, do something that gives you and your date a chance to talk to each other. A bar crawl or a concert aren't good first-date plans, because you might as well be alone if you can't get to know each other. Something lower-key, such as an art gallery opening, coffee at a shop on an interesting street, canoeing, or visiting a park or nature spot all give you something fun to do and let you and your date get to know each other. Dinner, especially at a restaurant you know you like, is a good opening. Have a follow-up plan like a desert cafe or a good area for a walk in mind so you can suggest it afterwards if things are going well.

If a sit-down dinner seems too formal or too high-pressure, plan an activity that gives you something to think about other than how you're holding your fork but still gives you chances to talk and joke around. Do you bowl? Perfect if you both do; sometimes even more fun if you don't. Same goes for beginners' night dance lessons, mini-golf, or the grownup version of arcades. If it would be fun with your friends, suggest it to your date.

And what do you talk about? Not politics or religion, until you have an idea of each other's philosophies and affiliations. Controversial and emotional topics such as abortion are best left alone on a first date unless you know you have common ground.

It may be smart to delicately discuss you and your date's general desires and expectations for a potential relationship. This doesn't need to be too detailed: you're not setting a plan, just getting to know each other. However, if one of you hopes to be married within the next couple of years and the other wants to find several flirtatious friends for occasional outings, it's better to know that what you want from a relationship is incompatible early on.

However, it is just a first date. Overall impressions of what you want in the early stages of dating are all that need to be covered. You don't have to hold a two-person referendum on relationships, and whether this will be one, on the first date. If you know that you're conclusively for or against, though (\"I want kids before I'm 30!\" or \"I'm just playing the field until after graduation.\"), you should let the other person know that.

What Makes a Good First Date? It really does depend on the people, but communication, sanity, good manners and cleanliness are probably all indicators of an outing that was not terribly unsuccessful. There is probably no such thing as a perfect date, but at least you can try to have fun and get to know someone while doing so!