I am a firm believer that freak shows should never have been outlawed.

I am a firm believer that freak shows should never have been outlawed. Back in the days of P.T. Barnum, at least these so called freaks had somewhere to go. Somewhere they knew they would be appreciated rather than today, where they mix in with the rest of us (almost seamlessly).

Why am I bringing this up? Because if you are single and dating, I will bet that you have already asked yourself this question: is everyone out there a freak?!

I mean, I once went out with a man who could only eat at a restaurant with an open kitchen (‘who knows what they would do to your food if we couldn’t see them!’). My friend dated a guy who was living in a 1 bedroom flat...with 16 cats.

Fine. Both of those examples aren’t all that bad. Perhaps these are things that could be worked out; compromised.

But what about the freaks who really get inside your head? Like the guy who tells you that there is no one else like you in the world and then tells you he wants to be monogamous...with a different woman! The guy who is softer than a teddy bear 97% of the time but then goes into a full state of rage over nothing at all.

We all have our quintessential ‘freak’ behaviour. I myself need to have an episode of South Park playing in the background before falling asleep. But how do we weed out the harmless freaks from the other ones? When are we still looking for a mutual compromise rather than compromising ourselves?