Introducing their children to their dates is the toughest challenge single parents face as they get back into dating, according to a survey conducted for Yahoo! Personals by Harris Interactive. Survey results were announced in conjunction with National Singles Week, Sept. 16-22.

Almost equal to the difficulty of making introductions, according to the daters surveyed, were the challenges of finding suitors who like their children would like and finding suitors whom their children would like.

Specifically:

Asked when they introduced their dates to their children, most survey respondents (28 percent) said it would be when they and their date started to "envision a future together." Another 19 percent said it would be when they first started dating. This was followed by "when they stopped seeing other people" (9 percent), "when they committed" (8 percent), and when they were ready for "him or her to sleep over" (2 percent).

"There is anticipation and anxiety leading up to that first meeting and a lot of questions such as, "Will they accept each other?" and "Will they like each other?," says Caroline Presno, commenting on the survey findings. "To cope with this, single parents should allow things to happen naturally and not try to force a connection between their date and their children. Making the first meeting a brief one is a way to take some of the pressure off." Presno, Ed.D., is a psychotherapist and author of "Profiling Your Date, A Smart Woman's Guide to Evaluating a Man" (St. Martin's Griffin, Sept. 2007).

The survey asked single parents to pick the person they most admire from a list of single celebrity parents. Bruce Willis received 28 percent of the vote and Reese Witherspoon received 12 percent. Also on the list and receiving votes were Diane Keaton (6 percent), P. Diddy (5 percent), Sheryl Crow (4 percent), Britney Spears (2 percent), and Kevin Federline (1 percent).

The survey asked singles to choose the celebrity they most wanted to date. George Clooney received 20 percent of the single female vote. Among the other male celebrities listed, Matthew McConaughey received 13 percent of the votes, Kanye West (5 percent), Andy Roddick (5 percent), Derek Jeter (4 percent), and Ricky Martin (3 percent).

Single males chose Jessica Alba as their favorite with 28 percent of the vote and Jennifer Aniston received 11 percent. Also on the list and and receiving votes were Queen Latifah (7 percent), Jessica Simpson (6 percent), Maria Sharapova (3 percent), Sandra Oh (1 percent), and Padma Lakshmi (1 percent). Lakshmi is the host of Top Chef on Bravo.

Harris Interactive conducted the Yahoo! Personals singles survey by telephone during August 2007 among 1,005 U.S. adults, age 18+.