Man was stunned when his date offered to cancel her flight home for him — then her surprisingly simple reason made him question modern dating
Dating can be strange because two people can walk away from the same interaction with completely different ideas about what made it special. Nathan Ing, who goes by @nathan_ing on Instagram, realized this during a date with a woman from Germany. She was so impressed by their evening that she was willing to cancel her flight home. He shared the story on June 25, 2026, but the reason she gave him for making such a big decision left him questioning what people now expect from dating.
Nathan was reacting to a video where a man was talking about his relationship, saying, "She carries the bags; I carry the responsibility." That message reminded him of an encounter he had years earlier with a woman from Germany, whose flight home was the next day. She told him the date had gone so well that, if he asked her to stay, she would cancel her flight. He found her words to be wild because he did not even share the same connection. The man couldn't understand why she felt that strongly, so he asked what had made their time stand out to her. Her answer caught him off guard. She said, "Well, you picked up the check, and you opened the door."
He couldn't help but question why the bare minimum was being glorified like it was something unbelievable. While recounting the experience, he was also frustrated by the kind of dating advice he was seeing online. He explained how men brag about taking responsibility but leave out the most basic duties. He challenged men to take accountability before everything else. Nathan then said that he thought the dating scene was difficult back then when the incident happened, but the current scenario seemed even more stressful and harder to understand. "I can't imagine what it is now," he said.
Dating expectations can sometimes turn simple gestures into something much bigger. In another story, a man asked his date whether she expected him to open a door for her, and kept behaving strangely throughout the evening. She later found out that he had been testing her to see how much she relied on him. The experience left her questioning whether the meeting was really about getting to know her or simply judging her. She later told the man that she didn't like how he treated her, and the fact that he thought basic acts of courtesy were "princess" behavior was enough to turn her off. She told him she was no longer interested in him, and would rather be with someone who didn't test her "masculinity."
You can see more of Nathan's interesting content on Instagram at @nathan_ing.