Green flags women should look for while dating

Representative Image Source: Pexels | Jep Gambardella:
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Jep Gambardella:

When dating, some signs can indicate whether the person is your potential partner or not. Commonly known as “green flags,” these signs indicate the likelihood a partner will deal with a relationship in a healthy and emotionally mature manner. In a thread posted on AskReddit, people hopped in to discuss their favorite green flags that women should look for when entering into a relationship with a new man. Here are the top ten of these green flags:

1.  He is kind to service staff

Representative Image Source: Pexels | cottonbro studio
Representative Image Source: Pexels | cottonbro studio

“When they treat servers well – bonus points for organizing the table before leaving.”- u/jinjiarts. “Politeness, especially to food service/hospitality people.”- u/oniontruck. “The way someone treats service workers especially if something minor goes wrong.” –u/innocentbystandernz. “Tipping well and being kind to waitstaff and service workers.” –u/bi-ti-lly

2.  He listens and is open to difficult conversations

Representative Image Source: Pexels | nataliya vaitkevich
Representative Image Source: Pexels | nataliya vaitkevich

“When a dude actively listens and remembers the little details from your convos.” –u/averiekings. “Listening to understand… and then acting kindly on the information they learn.” –u/rtconsult2. “Just listening when you are talking about something you’re interested in. He could have no clue what you’re talking about, but just listening and at least pretending like he cares means so much. Have had so many people just look at their phones and just go ‘mmm’ when you’re trying to talk to them about something you love is the worst feeling ever.” –u/_eliotto_. “He understands you and listens to you enough in convos to remember facts about you like fav candies, fav games, fav songs, and stuff of that nature.” –u/dry-resolution4580.

3.  He is family-oriented

Representative Image Source: Pexels | nicole michalou
Representative Image Source: Pexels | nicole michalou

“Treats his mother well.” –u/catsbygallimaufry. “One of the things I admire most about my partner is the fact that he makes time every single week to eat dinner with his parents. He does manual labor around their house, and just generally was raised right. It’s extremely attractive.” –u/sugarplumbuttfluck. “When he has respect for his mother or just his family in general.” –u/sleepwalkas. “Being family oriented. Also, I know a guy who is an adult whose mother is a widow and he lives with her so she won’t be alone. Living with parents isn’t always a turnoff, men, so don’t feel self-conscious about it” –u/shot_mirror5748.

4.  He has a great sense of humor

Representative Image Source: Pexels | j carter
Representative Image Source: Pexels | j carter

“He has a great sense of humor.” –u/hellosunshine2. “An ability to laugh at themselves,” –u/frank-sarno. “To add to this humor doesn’t translate well across cultures. It isn’t a dealbreaker if you don’t laugh at my jokes or mannerisms, just don’t fake a laugh as it is very easy to tell when someone is fake laughing.” –u/themonoclerogue.

5.  He is independent and has his hobbies

Representative Image Source: Pexels | andrea piacqualio
Representative Image Source: Pexels | andrea piacqualio

“He has a job and can take care of himself, He’s confident and knows what he wants out of a relationship/life in general.” –u/plutoforprez. “Good manners. Thoughtfulness. Unique comments.” –u/plain_chacalaca. “Has and follows a budget.” –u/accurate_ad_3104. “Having a non-monetized hobby that takes up a reasonable amount of their time.” –u/son_of_toucan_sam.  

6.  He loves animals

Representative Image Source: Pexels | yuliya kota
Representative Image Source: Pexels | yuliya kota

“When I met my now-husband one of the first things I noticed was how kind he was to animals. He was fostering a dog and would go on special dates with her, etc. If being mean to animals is a red flag, then being good to them is the exact opposite.” –u/psychobabble0. “During one of our first dates, my now husband pulled over and moved a turtle across the road. Sealed the deal for me.” –u/hk630. “My mom said one of the main reasons she married my dad is because of how nice he was to the cat he had when they were dating.” –u/mrsjakeblues. “Liking animals. I hate when a guy doesn’t like animals at all or ‘only likes dogs.’ A man who can get down with kitty snuggles or cuddle small animals sends all the ‘good mate that can raise children’ vibes.” –u/mrsketchup.

7.  He is true to his values

Representative Image Source: Pexels | klaus nielsen
Representative Image Source: Pexels | klaus nielsen

“Upholding his ideals and morals in his daily life without knowing if you’ll see it or not. Basically being genuine and not putting on a show in front of you.” –u/tornteddie. “They have actual realistic dreams/desires and are working toward them.” –u/allisongivler. “When they treat people how they would like to be treated… good old fashioned chivalry.” –u/cityshep.  

8.  He appreciates little things about his woman

Representative Image Source: Pexels | andrea piacquadio
Representative Image Source: Pexels | andrea piacquadio

“Compliments your tiny creations. For example, if you like to knit, they are like ‘Cute scarf, how’d you make it?’” –u/imnicewhennothungry. “Those random ‘Are you okay? I had a weird feeling as if something happened to someone’ texts.” –u/durbldor

9.  He is sensitive, vulnerable and empathetic

Representative Image Source: Pexels | ric rodrigues
Representative Image Source: Pexels | ric rodrigues

“Being sensitive and vulnerable, remembering little details about a person, being good or happy around kids would ring alarm bells with girls if they thought the guy was unattractive. Pretty privilege, halo effect, whatever you wanna call it.” –u/project_jormagandr. “For guys or gals, empathy. Sometimes you need a good hug after getting a kick in the teeth, y’know?” –u/mister_moho. “Reacts with compassion and empathy when you’re anxious or takes precautions instead of getting offended or mocking you.” –u/raaqu. “He’s not ashamed to cry in front of you or to tell you when something hurts him.” –u/honiedhylian.

10. He understands accountability and responsibility

Representative Image Source: Pexels | jopwell
Representative Image Source: Pexels | jopwell

“Doing the things they say they’re going to do.” –u/anywherebutarizona. “Knows what responsibility means.” –u/nosyhearth. “Offers to fix something…… means he isn’t afraid of a challenge, can problem solve, and is confident.” –u/midniteog. “When he acknowledges and tries to learn from his mistakes, no matter how trivial.” –u/dongwaterdouche.

  • A bride collapsed during her own rehearsal dinner toast. The detective who burst in explained everything.
    Bride gives a speech at her rehearsal dinnerPhoto credit: Canva
    ,

    A bride collapsed during her own rehearsal dinner toast. The detective who burst in explained everything.

    She planned a prank for the rehearsal dinner and cast herself as the victim. The groom had no idea.

    Alexandra Lahde had been a couple of things on the night of her rehearsal dinner: a bride, a hostess, and, briefly, a corpse.

    The 28-year-old barista from Canada had spent months planning the evening at Fairmont Banff Springs, one of the most storied hotels in the country. The decor was themed around old Hollywood glamour and detective fiction, with a vintage typewriter welcome sign, magnifying glass name tags, and moody florals and candles throughout the room. If any of her 30 guests noticed the clues, they kept quiet about it. When Alexandra clinked her wine glass to give a toast, nobody suspected a thing.

    “I just wanted to take a second and thank you all so much for coming here,” she began. Then she started to cough. She tried to continue. She coughed again, clutched the counter beside her, and said, “Oh my God” before dropping to the floor. Two guests who had been in on it from the start called out, “She’s dead. She’s DEAD!” Her husband Ian rushed toward her. Before anyone else could react, a man in a detective costume burst through the doors, flashing a badge. “Nobody move! My name is Bert Hammel. I’m from a bad police department. I’ve been told there’s a murder,” he announced, before looking down at Alexandra’s motionless body. “I can’t feel a pulse. The bride has been poisoned.”

    A dining table at a wedding reception with champagne bottles and flowers.
    Table arrangement at a rehearsal dinner. Photo credit: Canva

    The evening was underway. The actor, Eric from the improv company THEY Improv, had been hired by Alexandra with help from her wedding planner Melissa Alison Events. The murder plot was tied to the Fairmont Banff itself, which has its own legendary ghost bride story. Selected guests had been pulled into a separate room before dinner, briefed on the plot, and given character roles to play. After the faux detective questioned them in front of the group, guests split into teams to solve the mystery.

    Alexandra told People magazine that she had only learned the full script about 15 minutes before her guests arrived, which suited her perfectly. “I find I work best when I have little to no plan, so I went into it pretty blind,” she said, “only having practiced my expression and fall in the bathroom a few times before!”

    The video, captured by videographer Alesia Hardy (@alesiafilms) of Alesia Films, has since gone massively viral. Viewers were particularly impressed by one logistical detail: the detective appeared within seconds of Alexandra hitting the floor, giving the groom and guests no time to spiral into genuine panic. “The fact that the detective was virtually immediate to signal that she was okay and it was a game is the PERFECT way to pull this off,” one commenter wrote.

    This article originally appeared earlier this year.

  • Woman at airport quietly pays for dad who couldn’t afford toddler’s $700 ticket
    A woman pays at the counterPhoto credit: Canva
    ,

    Woman at airport quietly pays for dad who couldn’t afford toddler’s $700 ticket

    Debbie Bolton didn’t introduce herself or ask for thanks, she just handed over her card.

    He had done the math when he booked the flight. His daughter was under two, which meant she could sit on his lap for free. By the time they got to the check-in counter at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield, she was two, which meant she couldn’t.

    The ticket agent broke it to him simply: his daughter needed her own seat, and that seat would cost $749. The man stepped away from the counter, hugged his daughter, and started making calls. He’d told the agent he couldn’t afford to rebook his own ticket, let alone buy a second one. A fellow traveler who witnessed the scene, Kevin Leslie, later described what happened next on Facebook: “He was hit with emotion. He mentioned he couldn’t afford to rebook this flight or get her the ticket with such short notice. He stepped aside and tried to make a few calls. Hugging his daughter and grabbing his head, you could tell he was heartbroken.”

    That’s when the woman standing behind him in line spoke up.

    airport, line, airplane tickets, luggage
    Travelers wait in line at the airport. Photo credit: Canva

    “I wanna buy her ticket,” she told the agent, pointing to the little girl. The agent, caught off guard, double-checked: “You know how much this ticket costs, right?” The woman said yes. She pulled out her credit card and told the agent to charge it.

    The man asked for her name so he could pay her back. She told him not to worry about it and walked away.

    Leslie posted about what he’d seen, and the photo he’d taken began circulating on Facebook, eventually racking up tens of thousands of shares. People wanted to know who the woman was. Within hours, she was identified: Debbie Bolton, co-founder and Global Chief Sales Officer of Norwex, a sustainable cleaning products company.

    The story resurfaced in a big way in November 2025, when TikTok creator Bo Grant (@marriedtoalunatic) shared a video about it that went viral all over again, introducing the moment to millions of people who’d never heard it.

    @marriedtoalunatic

    Woman Identified as Debbie Bolton after interaction with a stranger and his 2 year old child is caught on camera #karma #kindnessmatters #norwex #heartwarming #debbiebolton

    ♬ original sound – Bo Grant

    Bolton, who spoke with Newsweek about the incident, said she noticed the father growing increasingly distressed at the counter and felt she had to do something. “He seemed like he couldn’t afford it and was traveling to visit family,” she said. She described the decision as straightforward. “I always ask myself every day, ‘Whose miracle can I be today?’” she said. “That day I was given the opportunity to be a miracle for someone else and I took action.”

    She said she hadn’t expected the story to travel as far as it did. “I honestly didn’t expect the story to resonate with so many people,” she told Newsweek. “My only intention was to help someone in need.” When Norwex confirmed her identity to CBS News at the time, the company’s chief marketing officer Amy Cadora said they were “very proud” of her. “She’s kind, caring and generous,” Cadora said. “That’s why none of us was a bit surprised.”

    @norwex

    “In a world full of Karens, be a Debbie!” Today, our Co-Founder Debbie Bolton is sharing a special message straight from the heart. 💚 We want to thank you for the incredible outpouring of kindness, messages, and support after her airport story touched so many this past weekend. As we head into the busiest time of year, we challenge you to look for simple opportunities to show kindness. It’s woven into everything we do at Norwex, from our home office to our Consultant community that Debbie has helped nurture since 1994. One person alone can’t change the world…but together? Together we can create something extraordinary. 💚 #norwex #sustainability #cleanhome #cleanliving #thankyou

    ♬ original sound – Norwex

    This article originally appeared earlier this year.

  • A couple sat in an Olympian’s seat and asked her to swap. She has a name for exactly what they were doing.
    An airplane cabin filled with passengersPhoto credit: Canva

    Cynthia Appiah just got back from competing at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. She finished 13th in the monobob and 14th in the two-woman event at the Cortina Sliding Centre, racing alongside brakewoman Dawn Richardson Wilson. A few years before that, she was on a flight from Toronto to Calgary when a couple decided her seat looked better than their own.

    Appiah is a national team athlete whose training means she flies between the two cities constantly. Over the years she’s accumulated enough airline points to occasionally upgrade, and on this particular flight she’d used some to book a premium economy aisle seat. She chose the aisle specifically so she could move around freely during the four-hour flight without climbing over anyone. She paid for the upgrade at the time of booking, as she always does, because she doesn’t want to be an inconvenience to other passengers.

    She boarded, found her row, and discovered a woman already sitting in her seat. The woman’s boyfriend was next to her in the adjacent window seat. Appiah triple-checked her ticket. The seat was hers.

    airplane, plane

    When she pointed this out, the woman acknowledged it without much embarrassment. She knew she was in the wrong seat, she said. She was just wondering if Appiah might not mind switching with her own seat, just one row back, so she could sit next to her boyfriend for the flight. Her seat was also premium economy, but it was a window seat.

    Appiah’s answer was no.

    “I told her, nope, I paid for this seat. I would rather stick with my seat,” she said in the TikTok video, as reported by Narcity Canada. “I was just like, I bought the aisle and I’m not moving.”

    The woman was upset, but as Appiah noted, she knew there wasn’t much of a fight to be had. She moved. The flight proceeded.

    Appiah posted the story to TikTok under the caption “Seat selection is your friend. I promise you,” and it spread rapidly, resonating with the sizable portion of the traveling public who have been in exactly her position. What made her framing stand out was a phrase she used for what the couple had attempted: “Nice bullying.” The strategy of occupying someone’s seat and then sweetly asking them to accommodate you, banking on social pressure to make refusal feel rude. As Appiah put it, people should not “kindly ask, but really bully, people into giving up their seats.”

    Her point wasn’t that couples shouldn’t want to sit together. It’s that the time to sort that out is before the flight, not after someone has already paid for the seat you’re sitting in. “If you don’t want to pay for seat selection, then that’s up to you and you deal with the consequences,” she said.

    The response in the comments was largely in agreement. A Delta flight attendant with 28 years of experience said that seat swaps are only really reasonable when they involve seats of equivalent value. A window seat for a window seat. An aisle for an aisle. Asking someone to trade a paid aisle upgrade for an unrequested window seat is a different thing entirely.

    Appiah grew up in Toronto public housing, the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants, and was introduced to sport through a Blue Jays community outreach initiative in her neighborhood. She made Canada’s national bobsleigh team through years of work, competed at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and has now completed her second Olympic Games in Milan.

    She also recently competed on Jeopardy, incorrectly answered a question about Tim Hortons, and says she may never fully recover. She is, by all available evidence, exactly the kind of person who is going to politely but firmly keep the seat she paid for.

    You can follow Cynthia Appiah (@cyndiesel) on TikTok to learn more about her daily life as a bobsleigh athlete. 

    This article originally appeared earlier this year.

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