10 Safety Tips for Dating (especially for Blind Dates)
By: Jill L. Ferguson
Maybe you’ve been dating for a while, or maybe you are newly single and dating seems like something you did in another lifetime. Whatever your situation, staying safe is important. So, we have provided you with reminders of ways to stay safe when you are meeting new people and dipping into the dating pool.
1) As a precaution, before you begin dating, get an unlisted and unpublished phone number so a barrier will exist for someone who tries to link your phone number and address.
2) Then, with any potential date, give only your phone number or e-mail address but not too much information about where, specifically, you work or where, specifically, you live. It isn’t good to be paranoid, but it is also wise to take safety precautions when meeting someone new, especially someone you and your friends no nothing about.
3) Agree to meet in only very public places.
4) Provide your own transportation for the first few dates or for however many you feel comfortable.
5) For the first date or two, you might want to make it a double date. Remember the old adage, there is safety in numbers.
6) Carry your cell phone. If the date is going horrible, you can always excuse yourself to the bathroom and call a friend to save you or to rescue with another phone call a few moments later.
7) Try to arrive at the date locate first and then sit facing the door. That way you will see the first reaction of your date and you will have no surprises.
Be the last to leave the date location to ensure you aren’t followed home.
9) Stay aware of your surroundings and all of the other people present at all times.
10) And most of all, if you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, alert a waiter, bartender, or other “official” person at your location.
Jill L. Ferguson is a writer, editor, public speaker, and professor of Creative Writing, Literature and Communication. In a past life (in the 1990s), she used to be a personal safety and substance abuse prevention consultant. Her novel, Sometimes Art Can’t Save You, was published in late October by In Your Face Ink, LLC. (http://www.inyourfaceink.com)