Dating in the silver years

"Must look cute every time you step out the door,:" is the first rule of snagging a man in the silver dating years.

I am back in the dating pool after the death of my husband, last year. Things have changed since just showing up and looking cute was all I had to do. A woman in born in the boomer years needs all the edge she can get, as because the competition is so tough.

Statistics back up what we silver women can identify within an hour of going on the market. For one thing, the majority of them are married. According the U.S. Census 70 percent of men 55 and older are hitched, leaving a scant 30 percent single. This compares to the number of single women in the same age bracket. Statistic show that 61 percent of women,  age 55 to 64, are married, leaving 39 percent single. So there are equal numbers per sex percentage wise.  However, the rate for married women drops to 41 percent, increasing the roles of single women 65 to nearly 60 percent of women. This means there are two single women for every single man, so the competition is tight.

It gets even tighter when you start getting picky. That means out of 36.3 billion senior men, only 14 billion are single. Then subtract all the men who are gay, alcoholics, drug addicts, narcissists, sociopaths, whiners or who are on their deathbed it is statistically challenging to get a date. Well, how choosy do I need to be, really? I have better odds of being hit by lightening than to a chance encounter with Mr. Right, much less with Mr.. Right Now.

The dating pool is also shrunk by the number of men who want to date younger women. If you want to confirm that, check out their online profiles where men are leaving the door open all the way down to age 18. And you also have to compete with scammers. They are the ones who are in your age bracket, but whose profile pictures are too incredibly beautiful, sexy and wonderful to be real.

So ladies, we must be our best, just to get an interview.

Must look cute. Must look slimmer than you really are. Must be ready to dazzle on a moment's notice, especially at the hardware store because you never know what kind of hardware you may see while you're buying air filters.

Check. Check and check. Let's see how this goes.