I’m always on the look out for a greater variety of social mingling options for singles of all ages, especially the mature senior single men and women in the Midlife age range. The singles bar and party scene for mature mate seeking singles is just not the same as it is for the 20 something and 30 something aged single relationship looking peers.
Well, one of the Faith Communities out there which has also gotten a lot more mainstream USA exposure in the past few years between the popular Broadway Musical, “The Book of Mormon,” and Mitt Romney’s bid for the Presidency is the LDS Church, aka Mormon Church. The LDS (Latter Day Saints) folks are a faith community which strongly supports and inculcates for their members of all ages to pair off and get married. So they sponsor singles activities for a number of age groups and in fact cluster their singles into slightly overlapping social groups to foster comfortable socializing and mixing without everything feeling like a massive meat market for meeting.
Sure, their larger events, their singles dances for their “Mid-Singles” members draws the largest turnout of 200-500 attendees. However, older mature love seeking singles in what the internet matchmaking industry has dubbed the Senior Singles (those who are 50 years and older, a la the membership criteria to join the AARP) do still have some socializing options. Each of the LDS Stakes (other Christian Church denominations would think of these as “Churches” or an area Diocese or Cathedral) often has a 40+ and older social option for its mature members. Naturally, with the LDS Church so strongly encouraging its members to marry and start families in their 20s, most folks who are single in their mid-forties and older are either divorced or widowed.
The social options for the 45+ and older crowd with the LDS Churches is typically a Friday or Saturday evening no-host dinner at an area restaurant. Alternatively, some of them will meet before getting a bite to eat to go watch a movie at a local theater before heading out to grab dinner together.
While the majority of singles at the LDS Mature Singles events are indeed of the Latter Day Saints faith, it is not 100% of those in attendance. Keep an open mind and an open heart, dress up in your dapper duds or diva dress, and head on out to meet some new people this weekend. You never know when love will find you.
What are your greatest challenges with finding singles you want to date where you live?
Happy Dating and Relationships,
April Braswell
As seen in Dating for Dummies, 3rd Ed.
Topical Dating Expert Columnist for MidLife Singles at DatingAdvice.com.
April is a professional woman motivational speaker, author, coach, and consultant based in the Los Angeles / Orange County area of SoCal. To contact her to bring her in to speak to your business, association, place of worship, or club, contact her at April (at) AprilBraswell.com.
Shane says
April 18, 2013 at 5:27 PMWell written. I remember the LDS “singles ward” days. I was even the activities chairman in charge of making get-togethers fun. It’s funny because that position in a family ward isn’t really thought of as an important job, but in the singles ward my Bishop told me that it was the most important! I met my wife through those church activities so I guess it was true.