TL;DR: seeking recommendations for single dad with kids to make new local friendships
36M here, married for 9 years, 3 kids from the marriage, 2 from ex-wife’s previous marriage that see me as “dad” and spend the majority of their time with me.
Ex-wife left me 3 months ago stating she was lesbian now (no hatred/judgment there, but the betrayal has sent me for a loop. Hoping we get to friends again at some point).
I’m tall, make a great salary (well over 6 figures), I’m not ugly, but I am greatly overweight. I’m also severely strapped for time as a resource. I work full-time, and I provide the bulk of parenting to these 5 kids (this was my choice).
I’m re-entering the dating scene, and having no luck.
I joined Bumble and Tinder, and getting virtually no interest there. I’m sure there’s “mistakes” I’ve made in my profiles, but I was honest and tried to show my personality. The idea of “getting better” at either platform has no appeal to me.
My plan for now is to work on the overweight piece and try these platforms again later; meanwhile trying to build/insert myself to local communities to meet new people IRL (not necessarily dating prospects, but seems like this is my best shot for increasing my networking opportunities).
I’ve recently moved so figuring out how to grow that local network seems like something I can control. I’ve started going to a local church. I’m not religious, but not hostile to religion, and it seems one of the few community-building activities that comes with child-care built in.
Particularly interested in other community-building options that folks have had success with.