Have any of the single parents looking to venture into the world of dating had any luck or once they spot you have child they block or ignore

Dating is a complicated, challenging concept in itself - adding =kids to mix compounds it exponentially. This does not mean that you still shouldn't try, but you just need to understand and respect this. IF someone is turned off by you having kids, this is THEIR problem first, then maybe it's yours. Be patient, the right person with the right attitude will come along, eventually. Or they won't. Keep at it anyway.

But I haven't been lucky in my searches yet, and I do make it a point to open that up immediately, so I get to sort who's who

Depending on the age of the child(if they are young) it can be very tough. As a single dad who had my kids 24/7 with no relief of other parent taking kids for even a weekends it was very hard to find time for a relationship.
Between work, food shopping, cooking, cleaning,laundry, homework etc etc. where do you find the time?
I did start to date a woman who had 2 kids of her own and as much as we got along great it really became almost impossible to spend quality time together with both our schedules.

Hard but not not impossible...Good luck!