If there is something more awkward than needing help to improve your love life, it is having your parents try to give you that leg-up.
Customer service agent P. Lewis, 25, recalls waking up one morning last year to find a friend of her mother's at her home, ostensibly to help "move things".
She says: "When I saw him, my mother said: 'Oh, meet my daughter - she's single.' It was so embarrassing and I hadn't even washed my face."
While she admits her mother's network is "better" because she mingles more, she says her mother's pleas that "he is a nice guy, give him a chance" will fall on deaf ears. "Because, I don't know how to put this nicely, I'm not interested."
Dates set up by parents put a damper on any potential sizzle, says Ms Tan Siling, 24, a human resource executive. "At the back of your head, you're thinking, 'My parents want me to do this.' So there's resistance and the date feels forced."
Her boyfriend, undergraduate Jonathan Liang, 24, whom she met through a mutual friend, adds: "Even if the girl introduced by the parents were perfect from the guy's point of view, I'd still not feel comfortable with the parents' hand involved."
So how is a friend's matchmaking different from a parent's? With the latter, there is more "obligation", especially if the person being introduced is a family friend.
Ms Tan says: "It's like, 'This is my best friend's daughter. Be nice to her and go on a few dates. Don't make me lose face.'"
With friends, she says "they don't pressure you to settle down".
"They merely say, 'Hey, if you like this girl, I will hook you up - but only if you are interested.'"
Church coordinator Steven Lai, 55, who has counselled young adults aged 18 to 30, says the youth would prefer independence, especially in this area.
But if parents mean well and want to help, the meeting they arrange should take place on "neutral ground" - like at a mutual friend's home, with parents absent, he adds. Otherwise, the situation might not look pretty.
"If, for some reason, the guy or girl wants to say, 'Thanks but no thanks', things can be awkward between the parents and the young people and between the young people themselves, especially if they move in the same circles," says Mr Lai.
But if youngsters are not keen on parents' involvement, why does dating agency Clique Wise organise Parents Connections, an event for parents to suss out potential matches for their children?
The Feb 2 event at the Singapore Turf Club drew about 60 parents, including a handful of single daughters.
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