Jon and Kate Split Results in Dating Challenges for the New Single Parents

    MIAMI BEACH, FL, July 16, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- When Jon and Kate Gosselin of TLC's hit reality show, Jon & Kate Plus 8, announced to the world that they were divorcing, they joined the ranks of more than 12 million U.S. single parents with children under the age of 18. Since then, Jon has been photographed out and about with not one but two alleged girlfriends, while Kate denies rumors of an affair with a family employee. As they venture back into the dating scene, we wondered: do single men negatively view Kate as being saddled with eight kids while Jon is more attractive to single women because he's a doting Dad and could possibly dote on new girlfriend's kids as well?

Inspired by their predicament, leading online dating websites Date.com (http://www.date.com), Matchmaker.com (http://www.matchmaker.com), and Amor.com (http://www.amor.com), polled its members to see how they feel about dating singles with children. According to the results, both the majority of U.S. males and females voted that they would date a single parent. Nearly 50% of single men and women polled said they would only be comfortable dating a single Mom or Dad with 2 or 3 children maximum.

However, an interesting statistic was learned, 19% of women said the number of children didn't matter and would even date someone with 8 kids, whereas only 3.2% of men would be willing to date a woman with eight children.

"Based on these poll results, Jon already having a girlfriend is not surprising, as being a Dad to so many children has made him more attractive to women looking for the ultimate 'family man.' Kate, meanwhile, will have a much harder time dating, since the majority of men would never date a woman with more than 3 kids, let alone eight," said Shira Zwebner, Relationship Advisor for Date.com, Matchmaker.com and Amor.com. "Dating someone with children is difficult, as the children almost immediately become a part of the relationship. Blending families is also extremely challenging, and the greater the number of children between the couple, the hardier it is to create a new, cohesive family unit where everyone is happy."

Last month, we conducted a new survey of thousands of online daters nationwide, asking: Would you date someone who has children?

Following are the complete results:

Yes: Men 83.3%, Women 81.0%
No: Men 12.5%, Women: 9.5%

We also asked: If you would date someone who has children, how many children can they have?

Following are the complete results:

Only 1: Men 34.8%, Women 23.8%
2 or 3: Men 47.8%, Women 47.6%
3 or 4: Men 18.7%, Women 4.8%
4 Maximum: Men 9.1%, Women 9.6%
Number doesn't matter, even 8 is ok: Men 3.2%, Women 19.0%

About Avalanche, LLC
Avalanche operates several leading online dating websites, including Date.com, Matchmaker.com and Amor.com. Date.com launched on Valentine's Day 1997 and has become one of the world's most popular dating websites. First started as a Bulletin Board System in 1986, Matchmaker.com is the oldest online dating site. It was acquired by Avalanche in 2006 and targets those singles seeking serious relationships. Amor.com, launched in 2007, is a rapidly growing destination for Hispanic singles. Avalanche hosts more than 10 million members worldwide, with the sites adding over 100,000 members each month. Additional information is available at www.date.com.

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