I've dated a client before when I first entered the industry and I'm still good friends with him, I also became friends with 2 other clients outside of this and gave them my real identity.. but i decided not to do this anymore because of 2 bad experiences. In the past when I felt like the lines were blurred and I trusted the person I offered to be friends outside of this. I don't regret it, and I do have valuable friendships with my clients but they have boundaries..
I feel like there's a power dynamic behind a client and a provider that can go both ways and things can easily be misinterpreted, so I decided that I will no longer give access to certain parts of myself to clients unless the situation is super unusual.. unfortunately I've noticed certain patterns.. Seeing clients is kinda like staying in the earliest stage of a relationship forever, or having a magical friendship without arguments, which is the beauty of it, but there are things I don't like to reveal for multiple reasons. Clients also don't show everything about themselves. I don't think it's because they aren't trustworthy individuals but feelings can build on one side or two sides, and expectations aren't based in reality..
The other day I saw someone say ''there's no way these girls would hang out with you guys for free'' but that's not what this is about for me, it's energy conservation.. the clients i've established a friendship with outside of this are exempt from this but I can easily become saturated socially even if I totally enjoy the time I spend with my clients. I'm not a clock watcher when I'm not busy since I have the privilege of an open schedule but if I started getting coffee and lunch with every client I like for free I wouldn't have time for myself anymore.. hence why I offer social time as a service because it happens within certain boundaries.
I also know a lot of clients who have told me about providers who gave them their real name and hung out with them outside of bookings often, they dated certain providers and gossiped to me about multiple details particularly when things went wrong between them, i shut them down obviously because that info is not relevant to me and potentially harmful because what if I told other people about this and deformed the information.. it made me realize that even if the relationship seems very real, something could happen and dangerous gossip could occur even if the person who offers this information doesn't necessarily have bad intentions.. No matter how much you get along, if something bad happens, what if the client tells people about it online or to other SP? It's human to confide and I don't hold it against anyone who did this.

but these things can have consequences in terms of confidentiality and discretion, even safety..
Same thing with friendships, I'm afraid if I were to become platonic friends with some clients and tell them my real identity, they wouldn't understand and they would think I am offering to be romantic partners. It happened once, and I was a bit shocked.. I guess I was naive.
I tried to date another client last summer who wasn't a man and this person hid things from me at first... Once we decided to just be friends, the topic of sex work came back on the table very often and she asked me to be her reference. This made me really uncomfortable. This person knew acquaintances of mine and at the same time knew people I knew in the sex industry in Montreal.. this is another issue. In my private life I don't want to constantly think about my SP life and talk about it, except with a few individuals..
I'm not a big fan of ppl on this thread berating SP like saying "we just have to open our legs to get men's attention and we're all promiscuous". I get where this is coming from but it's not reality.. I'm not promiscuous in my personal life and I'm not out there to use people I date. In fact I was quite generous with the 2 people I dated while being a SP. They also understood it's a job for me and I didn't involve them in it. I would really like to be in a loving relationship eventually but retiring isn't an option right now..
Maybe in the future my feelings about this will change.

who knows.