You will know when the time comes. My husband has been gone seven months... and i went on a date a couple weeks ago. I felt optimistic about it but It was a disaster; you can read about it in my journal. I learned a great deal about myself from the experience. One thing is that these days i find my independence a precious thing and i do not see myself giving it up. At my age of 58 men are mostly divorced or widowers (or both) and i do not have the energy to help them carry their baggage. Also, lately i've had people try to push me into making choices i don't want to make, i've dug my heels in.... not doing anything i don't want to do. You may meet someone very special tomorrow, or not; having a child gives you every reason to be cautious. Trust your instincts... (((hugs)))

So much good advice already given here. I can't really add much. But will share my experience. I was with my husband 28 years since the age of 17. He was all I knew and such a HUGE part of who I am. 1 1/2 years after losing him, I had not seriously started considering dating.Then, I was visiting a church and met someone who was also visiting there. The circumstances that brought each of us there and things that happened in the next few weeks were enough to convince me it was meant to be.

However, I moved way too fast and the emotions were almost more than I could handle. So please give yourself plenty of time! It has worked out for me, but I must say adapting to the new relationship was almost as hard as adapting to life without my husband. I am still working on this. It has been almost a year now and I still have spells where I cry for days. I still feel like I belong to my first husband, still feel loyal and committed to him. But I am also very lucky to have found another love....My first told me to remarry, spoke to each of our sons and told them to encourage me, support me and accept a new man in my life. They have done that and I am eternally grateful for the insight he had to tell each of us those things. Otherwise, I am not sure I could have ever gotten this far.

So, if you don't feel ready, don't let anyone push you. Your little girl definitely needs to come first. And if someone does come along as he did in my case, give yourself plenty of time. If you haven't checked out Hopeful Hearts, it is a wonderful group for those of us who are thinking about dating, are dating, or have remarried. I probably would have gone insane without my fellow widows/widowers there affirming that I wasn't crazy, just adapting.