‘Tis the season for more family gatherings than ever before, so is this the best time to bring your online dating match-up to tag along?

Some dating advice says sure, they’re just like any other date.

But when you’re new to talking to each other, you might want to rethink this option.

First of all, meeting anyone’s family is a big deal. And a situation in which everyone is going to feel nervous. If your family isn’t big on the online dating concept, you might spend more of your time explaining why you’re certain your date isn’t a stalker than actually talking to each other.

If you don’t already know a lot about the date, you might be fielding angry looks from them and from your family as you try to manage a coherent sentence about their background and hobbies.

Meeting the family also has marriage connotations which might leave someone feeling like this was more than just any other date – even if you just met. You might be asked when the wedding is and just how long you’ve known this person which can become awkward after the third or fourth time.

In the end, it’s your call on whether to bring a date to grandma and grandpa’s, but you might want to consider leaving them out – it’s a gift they’ll be sure to treasure.

Family, Relationships Family, Holidays, Marriage, Parents

You go onto an online dating site, maybe to find out if an ex is there, just to see how he or she is doing. You connect with them or with someone else that seems interesting to you. The catch? You’re married already. And your marriage isn’t in shambles, and you aren’t unhappy, but you just wanted to see how the waters of online dating might treat you.

It’s an ego boost when you get a response and it feels good to have someone talk to you and to tell you all the things you want to hear. But when you’re already married, not only are you leading the other person on, but you’re also hurting the relationship you’re in right now.

Here are some signs that you need to start talking to your spouse more than you need to be on online dating websites:

• You spend hours on online dating sites
• You don’t tell your partner about your internet activity
• You hide your online history or delete it entirely
• You talk more to your online dates than you do to your spouse
• You don’t mention that you’re married

While there are bad marriages out there and there are times when you might want to talk to someone else about things you need in your life, the truth is that going behind your spouse’s back isn’t necessarily the way to solve your problems.

Maybe it’s time to get offline and start talking to your spouse instead.

Affairs and Cheating Exes, Marriage, Married, Spouse

Match.com knows when to strike when the pot is hot – no puns intended.

With the decine in birthrates and an aging population, Japan is starting to encourage couples to have more children to bring the country back to its high population numbers.

Couples in Japan are also getting married later, which is leading to an overall lowered fertility trend – which is also adding to population concerns.

And that means that Match.com has to bring people together in order to start that family process.

(Of course, the fact that the online dating population may be overly saturated by online dating resources probably has helped Match.com to think about looking outside of the U.S. borders.)

Match.com is even going so far as to create personal consultants that will work with people individually to find the person that they will form a long term relationship with – this program looks to begin in early 2007.

It’s interesting to note that while the Japanese spend much of their time on computers, they are not all that confident of the people that they might meet over the Internet.

But Match.com is hoping that they can change some minds.

Online dating has never been easier – and this online dating company is hoping to save a country in the process.

Relationships Age, Children, Compatibility, Couples, Family, Marriage, Self Confidence