Picky Picky! But not anymore

This is a post long over due and I've dreaded even putting it up because honestly I don't care to hear too many opinions on it. But here we go....

I have been told that I'm too picky when comes to dating a guy and I would have to disagree. About 5 years ago I would say that anyone who said that to me was probably correct...because 5 years ago I was picky. Here was my criteria for the type of guy I wanted to date 5 years ago:

He had to be light skinned (I was only attracted to African American light skinned males and didn't date outside my race)

He had to be taller than me (I'm 5 feet so the idea of dating someone my hieight or shorter was out of the question lol)

He had to have because color eyes (hazel, green...it didn't matter as long as they were colored)

He had to have a nice body (I don't even have a great body, what the heck was I doing saying someone should have one lol....Oh well....my mistake lol)

He had to have a decent JOB (As long as it wasn't working at McDonalds at the age of 25 and up it was ok)

He had to have a NICE car (I didn't care what kind, just as long as it wasn't a bucket)

He couldn't have ANY kids (I didn't even have kids)

He had to have some type of college education, some goals and dreams (something that let me know he wasn't a complete idiot)

He had to be a christian and go to church

He had to have a good relationship with his family

He had to be at least my age or maybe 5 years older. No more than 5 and he could only be 1 year younger.

He had to have his own apartment (I was ok with him living with a room mate but not staying at moms place)

I could go on and on. I was VERY picky back then. I guess I figured if I'm going to date, then why not date exactly what I want. But I was young and dumb. The older I got the more I realized what world I was living in and it was the land of Terrica gets what EVER she wants lol. It was the real world. So today this is my criteria for the type of guy I want to date:

He has to be a christian and go to church (Its difficult to date outside of my religion and it can cause problems down the line so I get this one out of the way first)

He can't be 6-10 years younger than me. (I'm currently 31 and my sister tried to hook me up with a 21 year old) I've dated men younger than me and none of them worked out, so lets just say warning comes before destruction. I can do about 5 years younger but no more than that. As for older my limit is 45. My mom is currently 50 anything near her age is just too weird lol.

THAT'S IT (Now is that picky?) If your answer is YES...then bite me!

I will say a lot of those other items still pop up every now and then but it changes as I meet different guys. I'm a lot more understanding. Although I would like to date a guy with no kids its OK that he has children as long as he wants more with me because I don't have any. I can manage a man living at home with his mom (But it better have a GOOD explanation behind it lol) I don't care what kind of car he drives anymore. If it gets him from A to B that's alright with me. Times are hard and not everyone can afford some fancy expensive car. I use to never be interested in dating outside of my race but that's no longer an issue. Having a job can be a problem, especially if he can't take me out or if I'm always the one paying but like I said, times are hard right now. Jobs are very hard to find so I'm more understanding in this area. I don't care about the relationship he has with his family as long as he's a decent person and treats people with respect. As for his looks, that topic can be a bit tricky; however as long as he's sexy in my eyes I don't care what anyone else thinks. But he does have to appeal to my eye. I can't really say anymore, I just know when I'm attracted to a guy. I'm no longer picky on body size (However he can't be 400 pounds over weight and bound to his couch at home....by the way that has happened to me before lol meeting a guy over the internet...that's another story) So I don't consider myself picky anymore. But everyone has to agree that we all have some standards. Because of how this world is, we all have a different opinion on what's beautiful or ugly to us. I wish we all could see ourselves and others the way God see's us all which is Beautiful.