No time for a relationship? No problem! Thanks to the new online dating site Parttimelove.co.uk, you can find someone to be your boyfriend or girlfriend on a part-time basis. Founded by Helen Croydon, journalist and author of Screw the Fairytale: A Modern Girl’s Guide to Sex and Love, Parttimelove.co.uk exists to facilitate “low maintenance relationships” — that is, true romance and love minus the “We’ve been together for three months, should we move in together?”-type talks. Speaking to Metro, Croydon explained:
It isn’t about no-strings hook-ups, nor is it about finding The One. It is aimed at singletons who want the sparks and fireworks of a genuine love affair and the regularity of a committed partner but don’t have the time for a conventional, full-time partnership. They’re likely to include single parents, new divorcees, the career-focused and those who travel a lot ... I value my independence but must that mean that I’m confined to meaningless flings? I’d love to share some magical chemistry with someone but I’m not keen on merging my whole life with theirs.
Although at the moment, Parttimelove.co.uk is only available in the UK (with a £20 a month membership fee, of course), I think it’s safe to say that there’s definitely a market for it elsewhere — especially in the US. This isn’t to say you couldn’t set up a part-time romance on your own, though it seems likely to be fraught with mismatched expectations. With an online dating site like Parttimelove.co.uk, however, everyone goes in with the same expectations – which means no one has to worry about having The Dreaded Talk. Y’know, the one that goes, “So when I said I was cool with us not moving in together, what I really meant was, ‘Please can we move in together? Pleeeeeeeease?’”
Because who has time for that?
