For those who think it’s a good idea for girls and boys of marriageable age to sit at a Shabbos table together to learn how to talk to members of the opposite gender, do you know anybody who would research their Shabbos guests like they do shidduchium that are redt to their children? Who knows if they are suitable. Should they find out only after their emotions get involved?
As a single girl (but much older than average) I ate at many houses when living in Yerushalayim before I got married. There were families that stopped inviting me once they had boys who were old enough that they considered it to be too big a challenge for them to be at a table with a single woman, and I was at other families that kept inviting me but had a very long table, and I sat at 1 end, with all of their unmarried girls and married daughters in between. I never really saw them during the meal, but who’s to say that they weren’t looking my way? Can’t say for sure. Not all parents want to risk it.