While it could be fully sound advice for many, my wife broke off an engagement 3 weeks before we met. It was apparently fairly ugly in many ways.
We met, started dating, were married 2 years later, and now have been married for 10. So it worked out well for her (and me!).
Of course, she was looking for a one night stand, but ended up with a guy too nice to forget. 
Most relationships are doomed to failure, if we assume that every relationship that ends “fails”. I’d say that a vanishingly small percentage of rebound relationships fall into the “s/he was perfect, but I just wasn’t ready” category of failure. Most fail for the same reasons any other relationship fails.
If you feel like dating, then date. If you want to get more seriously involved with someone, then as long as you’re doing for the right reasons (which are that you like this particular person, not that you want to be in a relationship), I’d guess it stands the same chance as any other.
This fits with Dan Savage’s advice on the subject: “Every relationship you are in will fail. Until one doesn’t.” Figure out what you can learn from that last failed relationship, and move on with a better perspective.
Thank you for all of the advice, folks. It is much appreciated. We’ll see what happens if/when I get there.
And thank you in particular, Drain Bead, for clearing up my confusion. 
Rebounds have the characteristics of being based on insecurity (either “I can’t be alone” or “thank god someone wants me”) and the recent breakee bringing a lot of past baggage into the relationship – like trust issues that have nothing to do with the current person and everything to do with the ex. Very often the object of the rebound is either the opposite of your ex in every way or very much like him/her.
I think the thing to remember, is that not every relationship following a breakup is a “rebound” relationship. It’s the rebounds you have to avoid, not the relationships.
Beautiful plumage.
Regards,
Shodan
Mine wasn’t. Which is absolute, irrefutable proof that they are not “always”.
And I would have missed out on it, if I had automatically rejected it merely because I was in a position to be susceptible to a rebound misstep.
I think relationships starting ‘too soon’ will end badly, with the circular reasoning that the ones that don’t end badly didn’t start too soon.
But that was definitely the case for me. I had two instances of hooking up with someone very soon after breaking up with someone else, and they both flamed out badly for reasons that were 9/10ths my fault. In both cases, I hadn’t gotten over the old relationship, and was unconsciously carrying my expectations/habits/hang-ups/whatevers from it into the new one.
No.
I met my wife after a very bad breakup – we started dating about six weeks after it happened, though we had been talking together starting the week after (I was married and waited until the separation agreement to come through before asking her out). It’s now coming up on 35 years together.
Heh…first time I’ve gotten to ban a spammer out of my own zombie thread.
At any rate, since others have responded, I’ll add for the few that don’t know that I wound up getting into a relationship (though I wasn’t seeking it) just a few months after I started this thread. We’ve been married five-and-a-half years now, and it seems to be working out pretty damn well.
But, of course, Doper relationships are magic, so YMMV.
Studies show that most falls on stairs occur on the first step. Therefore, to make staircases safer, we should eliminate the first step on all of them.
Some relationship has to be the first one after a bad breakup. If you always shy away from the first relationship after a breakup, then you’ll never have any other relationships at all. Though it might still be prudent to wait a little while first.
I think people define a relationship that fails after a failed relationship as a “rebound” so they can better handle it and not have to think about the fact that they now have two failed relationships in a row. Not that they are a bad person or it was even their fault necessarily but it it’s a natural defense mechanism to just say “Ah it was doomed anyway since it was a rebound.”
So a rebound is only a rebound if it fails but the relationship after a failed one is no more or less likely to fail (on average).
You could just be a really, really slow rebounder. Think William. Shatner. Playing. BASKETBALL.
Suck it up, buttercup. You’re stuck. Your antiquated Star Wars references won’t save you from this relationship.
Rebound relationships that end aren’t always failures, either. I hooked up with a man who was in the process of divorcing a much-loved wife who had become delusional but refused to seek treatment. Super messy. We both knew he was a mess going into it and treated each other very gently. We had a good run of about two years and parted as friends. I would say it did only good things for both of us.
It kinda depends - What’s your mental state when you enter into the next relationship? My last unhappy seperation was followed by a relationship with the woman that’s been my wife for the last 24 years.
Of course, there was about eight months between the two, and my head was in a pretty good place by then.
Rebounds can be a healthy thing. The relationship I was in prior to my current one was definitely a rebound relationship, for both of us. While it did end, I think both of us got what we needed out of it.
You never know till it’s over.
After a long-term marriage (12+ yrs) failed, I did not date for a long time. I had three teens, I was hurt badly, and I needed time to recover. But then eventually I dated my “transition woman” and it was great, wild, fun. It felt good to relax and release. She wasn’t a keeper, and it ended after a few months, but the great memories sure were… great.
I’ve been in a relationship for a very long time and have two small kids. I would not be looking for another “relationship” any time soon. Possibly ever. Mostly I would just be looking to fuck as many women as possible and enjoy not having anyone around asking me to do stuff.
Then again, who knows?