If a woman asks a man out, she should expect to pay it all. I've yet to hear of this happening. Has anyone?
It truly makes me sad that the concept of a woman paying is apparently completely foreign to most men.
Yes, I've asked guys out and of course I'm prepared to pay. Last year I asked a guy to a major theme park and you don't want to know how much it cost for the tickets and then the express passes to not have to wait in the 2-hour lines. But I wanted him to have a good time, and yes, I paid. I just see it as, so I have to work some extra hours -- it's no big deal to me.
I'm a pretty simple girl whose parents always told her to set money aside for a rainy day. I'm not trying to dock women at all because I'm a woman myself, but I've had female co-workers ask, hint, or complain about not having money and they're doing so while holding up their daily Starbucks coffee with their salon nails, $300 highlights glistening in their hair, clutching their fake Louis Vuitton purses, and fluttering their expensive false eyelashes. I'm not saying it's wrong to spend money on any of that. I'm just saying, when someone like that tries to ask me for money, I decline, and I think about a gentle way that I could say, "You DO have money. You're just wearing and sipping it all." I don't mean that as a judgment, just a shift in priorities that maybe they were never taught.
Likewise, any time I've accepted a date, I'm prepared to pay and always offer to pay for myself. And if the guy sits and talks the whole time about how his ex-wife and/or every other woman he's been around has taken him to the cleaners, I ask the waiter for the whole check at the end, because I don't want to be just another woman he sees as a lecherous money-hungry vampire.
But I also don't out with him a second time, because if that's how he sees all women, I know I have no hope of being the one to change his mind. Nor do I have the patience to try anymore (I did when I was younger, but God has had to kick me past some hurts and I look for others who are in a similar stage of life.)
I don't know if you saw the thread about a small CC meetup in April where it was mentioned that the men in the group cooked and paid for several meals that they made for us all. But when we went to a couple of places, one woman paid for all the tickets for the escape room we went to, and another woman paid for all the tickets to the aquarium, and that included tickets for the men. The ladies also always offered to help pay for gas, etc. No one was left footing an extra bill for anyone else.
I'm happy to say that all the single female friends I have are like this -- though we also don't have any kids, which definitely frees up a bit more disposable income. If I were a single parent, I probably wouldn't want to date if I couldn't pay for myself (I'm only speaking for myself here -- I'm definitely not saying how this it should be for everyone or for other single parents.)
But of the female friends I have, we most certainly do not believe in taking advantage of men in any way, not even if they ask us out on dates. I appreciate a guy who insists on paying, but I'm always prepared to take care of myself, and even him as well, and I know that especially in today's economy, expecting someone to pay for you might even be a bit unrealistic.