Single in Sydney: If dating apps ‘cripple’ singles with choice, how come Sarah scores a hat-trick of duds?

SARAH’S back online and, while Married at First Sight reckons dating apps are ‘crippling’ singles with choice, she gets fertility shamed, told she’s too tall and ditched by a bloke who didn’t like her cat’s name.

• First Dates dishes up a taste of reality
• First Dates star adds spice to Sarah’s roaming dinner party
• The REAL five reasons you’re single

JOURNALIST Sarah Swain has been single (but dating) for longer than she cares to remember.

That’s because it’s tough out there, as any single will tell you, so to bring hope to others across the city, she’s sharing her no-holds-barred adventures on the Sydney single scene every Friday.

I think this is what’s called fertility shaming

I’ve been fertility shamed. You see, I’m back online. I know, but I figured I shouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket by trying to meet blokes in real life.

But it’s been a week and I’ve nearly cracked already.

‘Cause while Married at First Sight psychologist Melanie Schilling (who I’ve chatted to before) declared on this week’s show “singles are paralysed by choice” with digital dating, I don’t agree.

More like bloody disabled by depression at the blokes out there.

Let me explain.

Erin and Bryce from Married at First Sight. Picture: Channel 9

Fertility is something you’d talk about with your boyfriend right?

You know, maybe after you’d been with them for a little while.

Even casually after a few weeks, perhaps, if you’re in your 30s and wanted kids.

It’s not something you’d really discuss on tinder.

And certainly not after a couple of messages and never meeting the bloke in real life.

Talk about counting your chickens and all that.

But this is what some bloke said to me the other day:

“It would be nice to start a family so I would naturally choose a younger girl because there is a biological clock. If it wasn’t for that, I find older women somewhat more interesting and sexier.”

And I nearly cracked.

Melanie Schilling is a dating coach who appears on Married at First Sight and said we’re ‘paralysed’ by choice by online dating. Picture: Kylie Else

My mate Annie couldn’t actually believe I hadn’t made it up.

And that’s not the only thing blokes have found wrong with me JUST THIS WEEK.

Over on Plenty of Fish, I’ve also been height shamed. (“you’re attractive but maybe too tall?”),

and I’ve even been waved goodbye by a self-confessed feline-loving bloke who DIDN’T LIKE THE NAME OF MY CAT.

Both in the same day.

Read it ... and actually weep.

Yes, I sent the response before deleting him ...

Then there’s Zoosk, which you have to pay for.

But money doesn’t equal happiness.

‘Cause from the handful of guys I’d chatted to who looked decent this week, I arranged dates with two.

The fertility shaming classic.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like my cat, it was his name that offended him, it seems.

I mean, I’d had to ask them, ‘cause I was sick of the endless chatting, but they’d sounded keen.

We arranged times, and roughly arranged places.

And I never heard from either of them.

On the day of each date, I messaged.

My eggs, my business. Picture: Braden Fastier

One, a paramedic, said he thought I’d’ “pulled the pin” as I never contacted him to confirm and he now couldn’t make it.

What did he want, an Outlook invite?

We rearranged.

But a day or so later he messaged me to say he’d “pulled the pin” on online dating — and our date.

Well thanks pri ... pinhead.

The other one, who’d actually phoned me to chat and arrange to meet a few days later, never got back in touch.

So I sent him a message.

All right, pinhead, next time I’ll send you a letter?

He’d forgotten. And he never suggested rearranging.

I’d like to point out these aren’t just the usual weirdos you find online.

They’ve been through more filters than a Kylie Jenner Instagram shot.

They didn’t have mirror selfies, and hadn’t lied about their jobs (unlike the ‘travel writer’ I caught out this week when I asked if he knew my pal who worked at said travel magazine).

Busted, I mean, What’s the point?

Actually, I’ve decided Married at First Sight’s right — about blokes.

They really are ‘paralysed by choice’. So disabled, that they’ve lost the knack of actually being nice to girls- and asking them out.

Married at First Sight’s narrator also helpfully declared; “we’re struggling to find the one, despite online dating”

No, actually. We’re struggling to find the one BECAUSE of online dating.