Kiwi sons and daughters are helping their single parents find
love online by playing cupid on a new website for the over
50s.
Instead of traditional online dating sites,
MyLovelyParent.com is a family affair, where offspring or
another family member endorses their single relative.
It is easy to use, safe and gives an insight into the
person's family relationships, said England-based founder
Matt Connolly, 35, who launched the site to help his own
mother find love.
She is a "lovely lady" in her 60s, who has been single for
more than 20 years.
"I was just sitting around the dinner table with my mum and
my girlfriend and she piped up with 'can you help me find my
knight in shining armour?'. It was really cute," he said.
He looked at several dating websites, but found them
"riddled" with unethical behaviour and there were none he was
happy to recommend to his mother.
So he set up his own, where members have full control of
their information and profiles are checked and vetted, he
said.
"It's quite a 360 holistic picture of somebody. You can be
whoever you want online, but this gives a layer of
reassurance to people."
Since its launch at the end of last year, members have
reached 1270, including a "a handful" of Kiwis along with
British, Americans and Australians.
Members can currently sign up for free, but a subscription
element will be added to the site later this year.
Nick Cutts, 61, asked her daughter Natasha to create a
profile for her on the website after hearing about it on the
radio.
The divorced mother-of-four from Cornwall has been single for
18 years and found other dating sites "big and impersonal",
she told told the Mail Online.
She also liked the family endorsement aspect of
MyLovelyParent.
"From a female perspective, if a guy has such a good
relationship with an offspring that they are prepared to
write something for the site, then that says something about
him - and his relationship with his child," the Mail online
reported.
She was primarily looking for companionship with someone of
her own age and stage of life, she said.
So far the feedback has been really positive, said Mr
Connolly.
"We have had feedback saying people are meeting up, which
pretty much kind of melted my heart because it just shows it
works."
His mother too, is happy to have found a new way to connect
with other singles, said Mr Connolly.
She is on the site and is enjoying chatting to members:
"She's loving it".
- Abby Gillies of APNZ
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