Dating Tips

10 of the best bad date exit strategies

With the best will in the world, not all dates are equal. Unless you’re extremely lucky (or ultra selective), the chances are that you’ll experience a bad date at some point in your dating days.

When your date is excruciatingly bad, you can be forgiven for wanting to bail out – but you might at least try to do so as nicely as possible, rather than going to the toilet and never coming back. Here are our top 10 exit strategies for getting yourself out of a bad date!

1. The crisis call exit

If you’ve got friends willing to play along, then you could pre-arrange for someone to phone you halfway through your date with an emergency crisis.

If things are going well, you don’t need to act on it, but if it’s all going pear-shaped, then hearing about a sudden crisis is good exit strategy to have. Don’t get too carried away with your crisis ideas though – keep them believable!

2. The double-booked exit

Pretending to have double-booked yourself is a good way of gently letting down a bad date, but you do need to implement the plan at the beginning of a date.

When you arrive for your date, make a point of saying that you’ve discovered at the last minute that you’ve accidentally double-booked yourself and might have to leave early. Be creative, but realistic, with your reasons – for example, it could be your workmate’s leaving do, a work event you should have been at or a friend’s party.

If your date is less than inspiring, then you can use the excuse to head off early.

Don’t worry if all goes swimmingly well and you don’t want to leave. Your date will be even more impressed that you’ve given up your time to spend with them!

3. The spillage exit

This isn’t ideal if you’re wearing your favourite frock or designer suit, but if things have got really boring and you’re hating every minute of your date, then you could always put to use the spillage exit.

This is a move best made with a bit of prior thought – it’s better to use white wine, vodka or gin, rather than red wine or beer. Put simply, you need to engineer a situation where you accidentally spill your drink all over you, with monumental effect.

If you make enough of a fuss about the whole incident, not bearing to stay in the clothes a minute longer, you can subsequently rush off home to change and get the stains out.

4. The tiredness exit

This one is ideal for anyone who is already bored to tears by their date and can’t help but yawning and looking bored. Yes, it’s the tiredness exit.

In order to pull this one off, you need to be able to suitably fake extreme tiredness, where you can’t stop yourself yawning. It’s also good to team it up with the idea that you have to be up super early the next morning for work, so need to go home early to get a good night’s sleep.

5. The illness exit

No-one wants to be suddenly struck down with dire illness on their date, but if the date is the worst you’ve ever been on, then you could enlist the help of the illness exit strategy.

This is the one where you suddenly feel unwell and have to rush off home straightaway. It could be a faked dodgy stomach (you may have to rush to the toilet several times before to really pull this one off), feeling sick or, for the girls, you could fake sudden women’s problems.

6. The parking ticket is running out exit

If time is ticking on and you can’t wait for your date to end, then you could always use the good old line that your parking ticket is running out, so you really must go.

It can work too even if you haven’t driven – just make sure he doesn’t then spot you carless and walking, as your guise will be blown.

7. The scaring him witless exit

If you don’t fancy any of the other exit strategies, and don’t feel up to faking an illness, tiredness, prior commitment or spilling something all over yourself, then you could always go for the scaring him witless exit strategy.

With this novel method, the idea is to be as scary and off-putting as possible. This could be through disagreeing with everything he says, coming up with weird and wacky made-up hobbies and activities, or indulging in raucous laughter or giggling for no apparent reason.

If successfully used, this should have your date making their own excuses pretty pronto, leaving you alone as you’d desired.

8. The long-term commitment exit

The first or second dates aren’t the place to start talking about long-term commitments – that comes further down the line – so if you’re keen to lose someone sharpish, talking about commitments is a good way of doing so.

For example, you could suddenly start talking about how you’re dying to get married as soon as possible, want to have his babies, would like your date to meet your parents tomorrow and want to move in together straightaway.

As long as you’re not out with someone who really is desperate, then you’ve got a jolly good chance of putting them off and ending the date – and any future ones – in a shot.

9. The ‘must catch my train, bus or plane’ exit

Another useful transport-related trick to have up your sleeve is the notion that you need to suddenly rush off to catch a train, bus or plane.

It could be that it’s the last train or bus back home, or that you’re need to dash to catch a plane away for work (and what an even better reason to be unable to see your date again soon, or get their calls).

As with the car park ticket exit trick, just be sure to be well out of his view if you’re not heading towards a station or airport.

10. The honesty exit strategy

If all else fails and you’re really far too nice at heart to pull off any of our other exit strategies, then there’s always the honesty exit.

Some people find it hard to do, but if you’re not enjoying the date, know you won’t get on and there’s no chemistry at all, why not just be honest and tell them. You don’t have to go into a great long explanation of what’s wrong, just keep it simple, tell them it’s not going to work and leave.

Tags: bad date, commitment, dating, exit strategies, exit strategy, honesty

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