I have a friend who’s now 40-ish who lived in San Diego for about a decade. She was married, had a kid and got divorced when she was maybe 32. Two years ago she left San Diego and moved to Savannah, Georgia. She had reasons besides relationship (or lack thereof) issues for moving, but I’ll paraphrase her thoughts on dating in Southern California as a single mom in her late-30s, which she shared with me. For a little context, this woman is fairly attractive, takes care of herself and had invested in some surgical “enhancements.” She turned heads.
Anyhow, paraphrasing: “The problem with dating here [San Diego] is that most of the guys that I want to have a relationship with have too many options. For example, I really like [Name Withheld]. He’s 46 but he can date some hot 28-year old that doesn’t have a kid or a care in the world. So I have to compete with a lot of younger women with no kids AND all of the women who are in a similar situation to myself. My potential dating pool just gets older. [Name Withheld]’s dating pool just gets bigger because he can still date younger women if he wants to. It’s not fair.”
She was generalizing, of course. But there’s more than a grain of truth in her observation. Anyhow, she moved to Savannah, married a cop and I assume they’re both happy campers.
The point is that Southern California is a very difficult dating market, and particularly for women as they pass 40. The competition is fierce.