After my dad died, by mom found another partner a few years later. They were together for 22 years but she didn’t want to marry him and they each kept their own houses. She loved my dad and the life they had together but suddenly there was all this freedom and no need to be home at a certain time to have dinner on the table or to do someone else’s laundry. This really is the growing trend. I wrote about it a while back.
“After being told their whole lives that they are only complete people if they become wives and mothers, many women are discovering that they are just fine as singletons — some of them as never-married people and some of them as never-again divorcees or widows. The trend seems to be related to a desire for greater independence and autonomy and to have the kinds of love relationships that do not inhibit that.”
Younger women may still be buying into the cultural narrative about the fairytale to some extent, but overwhelmingly, many of those who have experienced the reality aren’t anxious to repeat it. They want love and companionship, but not all the baggage that comes with marriage.
