That’s a Murican-specific breed which you don’t find in the free world.
Quicky
They absolutely do work, and I can’t recommend them enough - this is coming from a male mid-40s divorcee. I was on and off Tinder for 4 years looking for a relationship and met several women, before finally meeting my soul mate. For somebody like me who isn’t the most outgoing person, they were a godsend in terms of meeting people. Some of the negativity in these responses is wild.
They’re a relaxed, accessible mechanism for starting conversations. Yes, there’s incentive for the companies to keep you on the apps but it’s certainly not forced, because if they didn’t ever work, their incentive for use evaporates.
I am 100% of the opinion that people who have limited luck on dating apps are likely to have the same limited luck in real life. It’s just that the apps present you with multiple “opportunities” in succession that you don’t get in real life, so it could feel like constant rejection for some. If you match with a real person and start a conversation that goes nowhere, that’s down to yours or their communication, or a simple incompatibility. Both parties have already shown an interest at the point of matching. Where it goes from there is down to you.
It’s entirely a numbers game. You can’t expect to hit it off with every person you match with online, any more than you could in real life. But you will find someone that you otherwise wouldn’t get the chance to meet through other circumstances.
Clearly I don't recommend this, but years ago after having an ingrown toenail causing months of pain, I got drunk, decided I'd had enough, and cut a sliver out of it with a breadknife. Ridiculous decision, but cured it forever.
In terms of pain alleviation before surgery (medically trained or otherwise), I can highly recommend stuffing the toenail with tissue paper as close to the ingrown part as possible. Poke it in with a toothpick or something. It acts as a cushion and can train the nail to grow away from the skin.
Unintended bonus of having my own ingrown toenail though: I have always played football and refused to stop even when the pain was at it worst because I love playing it so much. I'm right footed and couldn't kick the ball with it at all during that time. Instead I forced myself to use my left constantly. I was shocking initially, but weeks later became a two-footed player. Best thing that happened to improve my game long term.
This is a wildly vague question, but a snippet of advice I was given years ago by a mate with a kid a few years older than my (then) toddlers was "You don't have to provide them with constant entertainment, you just need to do one or two activities for a short amount of time and that's what they remember".
It's great advice. Kids at early ages can be a fucking nightmare, but the truth is, you take them swimming for an hour, or do some painting for a while, or go to the park for a bit, and that's what gets imbued on their consciousness. You get the rewards when they fill in that little book at school about what they did at the weekend, and it's a ten minute window of shit you did that was fun for them, and not the rest of the stressful admin that comes with dealing with young children.
My nearly adult kids often say to me now "you were always doing fun things with us". Mate, I played table tennis in a shed with you for 20 minutes, or sat down with you for a bit and made a robot out of a fucking cardboard box and a bog roll.
One or two activities a day where your attention is fully on them is enough to create happy memories for them. You don't need to helicopter about.
Haha, yeah that’s why I didn’t leave it as just “the teat” when writing it down. One of those that’s better when audible.