Man asks single mum to 'put kids up for adoption' so he can date child-free woman

A horrific post on a dating site has triggered a number of replies that suggest giving up children just to be with a lover is a lot more common than most people would imagine

A man's stark request to his match on a dating site has shocked singletons - but it turns out he isn't the only person to have made such a request. Posting on a dating site, a guy called Arron told his match Lauren that she was "looking good in her pics" before asking a quite shocking question.

He said: "Would you be willing to put your children up for adoption? I want to date someone without kids, so looking for someone who is willing to free themselves of their current kids xx." While it is unclear whether he was joking or not, it seems a number of people have actually done this, according to the comments below the post on Reddit. One poster said they knew of someone who had given up her own child to ensure there was peace in the home she was now sharing with her new partner.

A user of the site said: "‌My mother-in-law was friends with a lady who actually did this back in the 90s. Her son and his son would fight (they were little kids.) so she gave him up. My mother-in-law stopped being her friend when she did that. He is not OK. My husband said he was put into our local kids home/orphanage then died of a drug overdose while in high school. People who give up their kids for partners are f*****."

That post triggered a number of people who had personal experience of that type of shocking situation, with one person recounting how their mother had sent her, aged five and her sister, aged just 18 months old, to their grandparents' home to live because the guy she was dating "didn't want to be with someone with kids".

They said that they thought the situation happens all the time and that men such as that really do exist, with women too, being prepared to give up custody of their child or children to make sure they were able to have that lover. The user said: "My grandparents adopted my sister and I - and raised us until we became adults."

She said that their mother ended up breaking up with that particular partner, but that their grandparents never believed it would be a good move to give the children back to their mother. She said: "She did get into a relationship with another guy who she’s been married to for 17 years now and I have a half-brother from him. But we aren’t exactly close. My sister has nothing to do with her. Our mama is our grandma. It did contribute to my crippling abandonment issues though."

Another poster quipped that they would have the perfect response for the man who made the request on the dating site, saying: "Hi Aaron, I’d love to! However, I must confess that I am only attracted to grown men who choose to become eunuchs late in life. That means in order for us to be together you must castrate yourself… Once you have done this I will be happy to put my children up for adoption so we can finally be together. Xoxo."