Single mother and ghosting experience

Each month, we publish a letter from a single parent who wrote to us to share their questions, doubts or sorrows.

Hello to all the single parents out there,

I’m writing to you tonight because I can’t drive these thoughts out of my mind and I’m still trying to process what happened.

Was it me? Is it because I’m a single mum? Is this just some fad and nothing to do with me? Did I say, not say, do or not do something?

Let me explain: I’d been on a dating app for a few weeks without much luck, until I met HIM. I fell for him straight away. He was exactly the kind of guy I like (dark hair, tall enough that I can wear heels next to him, green eyes) and we seemed to share the same deadpan sense of humour.

At the beginning, I felt like he was more into me than I was into him. I wanted to take it easy so I answered his messages when I came across them, rather than being glued to the app. I told him very early on that I was a single mum and was recently divorced but that didn’t seem to put him off, so I started to relax a little and to respond to his messages more often.

We carried on chatting and started to talk more about our lives and also our hopes for the future. We decided to meet up in person (I won’t even tell you about how stressed I was, even more so because I arrived in a rush, drenched in sweat). But the date was amazing. We talked all night, had a laugh and it felt exactly like our conversations on the app, but better and in real life. At the end of the evening, we kissed and said that we would meet up again a few days later… but I think he must have dropped off the face of the earth because that was 3 weeks ago and I haven’t heard anything from him. At the beginning, I told myself that something bad must have happened to him, especially since he hadn’t logged on to the app. However, I soon realised that he was still very much alive (I saw a photo on his Instagram account of a restaurant that I’d recommended to him) and that I’d just been ghosted. And I don’t understand why and I can’t get over it. I wasn’t in love with him but I’m still confused by it. I just want to know why. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Sophie