Dating post-divorce is hard, especially if you have children. You never know how they may react to your new partner, whether with acceptance, anger, or apathy. You can only control how you handle the situation, not how anyone else handles it.
He writes:
I've never been particularly close with my daughter. After her mom and I divorced when she was 13, I saw her maybe once every 2-3 months and on birthdays/holidays. I blame myself for that; after the divorce, I went into a mid-life crisis (although I was only in my early 30s). Over the last few years, I've dated quite a few women, but I wouldn't class any of those relationships as "serious.' Six months ago, I started dating my current girlfriend.
About six weeks ago, I invited most of my family out to dinner (my daughter, my siblings, their partners, and my parents); I felt like our relationship was at a point where I wanted to introduce her as my girlfriend to the family. And everyone seemed to like her, and we had a fun dinner. But then, after a few glasses of wine, my daughter got into this small argument; I honestly don't even remember what it was about, and during that argument, she called my girlfriend a gold digger and left shortly after. She generally just ruined the whole dinner.