ODE TO LIVING ALONE
Posted on 12/16/2014 4:54:36 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The number of Americans who choose to live alone continues to grow.
So finds a recent Current Population Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. According to The Washington Post, the survey found that "the proportion of Americans who live alone has grown steadily since the 1920s, increasing from roughly 5 percent then to 27 percent in 2013."
The Post reports the number of men living alone doubled to 12 percent from 1970 to 2012. Some 15 percent of households are comprised of women living alone. In large urban areas, such as Manhattan and Washington, "about half of households have single occupants, and in some neighborhoods the proportion is two-thirds..."
And why are more people living alone? Because they want to. The more their economic means have allowed it, the more people have chosen to get their own digs.
As someone who lives alone, I'm just not so sure this is a good thing.
I compare the way many single people live today with the home in which I grew up. I lived with five sisters, two parents and a dog. Until I was 12, we had only one shower. We had to share and be considerate of others.
This was during the '70s and '80s, when the shag haircut - the long, full Farrah Fawcett hair - was all the rage, which meant my sisters were spending a lot of time washing, conditioning and drying their hair in our only full bathroom.
My poor father spent many of his adult years sitting on his bed in his robe, waiting to get a shower so he could go to work or to the store. His bedroom was at the far end of the house, however. No sooner did he hear the bathroom door open and begin heading down the hallway than he'd hear it slam shut again - someone else going in to get a shower.
The only way I ever got in was by threatening to use my sisters' toothbrushes.
Our house was a chaotic place. Friends, family and neighbors were always coming and going. The doors were never locked. If you set anything you owned on a table, somebody would relocate it and you'd never see it again. And when something broke, which was about a dozen times every day, my sisters blamed me and everyone was happy.
Well, unlike the way I grew up, I live alone now and have total command over my little world. This is not good. Because there is no one to tell me to clean, I follow the P.J. O'Rourke school of thought: I clean my place about once every girlfriend.
You see, because I live alone, most daily activities are all about me and only me. And because so many people are living as I do, I wonder whether more of our population is becoming more isolated and insular.
More of us are coming home to orderly little worlds that have not been disturbed by the presence of other people. We don't hear the sound of a baby crying or a stereo playing. We don't know the scent of cookies being baked as a gift to us. We don't know the chaos or uncertainty that always occurs when you live with creatures as unpredictable as human beings - people who help us escape the narrowness of ourselves.
No, instead we know an orderly little existence. We have total control over every piece of furniture, every ounce of shampoo in the bathroom and every scrap of food in the refrigerator - though I admit I don't toss things out of my refrigerator often enough.
Much like comedian Blake Clark, I had one milk carton in my refrigerator so long, it had a picture of the Lindbergh baby printed on the back of it.
And ain't it a blessing. Imagine how nice it is to come home and find the place exactly as you left it, and the food item you were looking forward to having for supper that night is still in the fridge waiting for you. Having raised two sons on my own, I've come to cherish the solitude in my golden years.
this guy can only speak for himself... i lived alone for about 8 years and i did not need anyone to tell me to clean... and my life was not all about me... i had friends and family, and i often had shindigs in my home... dinners, parties, movie nights, Bible studies, reading groups... etc...
Here are what I see as issues:
1. Family’s are best for society, that means woman and wive and kids and pets, read diversity. Family are needed to have healthy kids and socially well behaved kids who become adults. Not millennial its all about me narcissist wimps.
2. If most cites like NY are 50% single parents and most are women they vote overwhelmingly for Democrats to provide big government supports, some think to replace the Man they really might need socially in their life.
3. Single people who dont grow up with and or live with other people tend not to be as good at social things like compromise and working as a team. If your put up with your wife’s makeup all over the bathroom sink or the mans mess while shaving you likely learn how to let the smaller things in life go and focus on the bigger issues.
4. I would throw in the Islamist are busy having lots of wives and kids and will out grow us in a few years. Don’t you really want 8 kid Christian family’s vs Islamist or a bunch of singles making the decisions in the world?
I think what he is saying is its ok for individuals to make these choices, however culturally for thousands of years the family unit was a major key to our social success as well rounded humans. This can be a threat to our own success. There are whole books written on how the family tames the man who otherwise in years past could easily become a hoard of barbarians at the doors of civilizations.
I plan to die with dignity at the bottom of the basement stairs just like God intended.
Post of the day!!Post of the day!! Post of the day!!Post of the day!! Post of the day!!Post of the day!! Post of the day!!Post of the day!!
Especially with six people in the house having help come in was prime.
I think there are people who do better in a congregant living situation. Apartments that open up into a common area, Shared housing, roommates.
those people like the companionship.
You’re making me jealous ;). Eight people in the house...I’m the maid.
LOL! I’ll see you there!
I always figured that when I died, they wouldn't find my body for weeks afterwards, and that my cats would feast on me in the meantime. My cats have been gone for almost 10 years, so it'll just be the maggots that dine on me now.
As the oldest of 9 I left home at 17 and didn’t marry until age 57.
Only had roommates in the early years, so most of 40 were alone.
What a transition married life has been!
Oh
You and I are here, and you’re OK by me MHGinTN.
Amen to that. Between wives, I lived alone for 34 years. Being an anal neat freak my place was always immaculate. Been married now for three years and have to keep the anal side somewhat subdued. She’s not messy but not a neat nut like me.
“More of us are coming home to orderly little worlds that have not been disturbed by the presence of other people”
After many chaotic years I find that absolutely delightful.
.
I’ve been alone since I left my parents’ home 43 years ago. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
On July 14, 2009, I woke to an empty house for the first time in over 20 years. My wife had taken the kids and moved out while I slept. Since then, besides the times my youngest daughter is with me via the joint custody arrangement, or some stretches when my oldest daughter stayed with me, I have lived alone.
It was a tough adjustment at first. It got easier as time went by and after a few years I found that I rather liked it.
Now, it’s the only way I want to live. I still have my daughter with me several days a week, but besides that I’m here alone and loving it.
It would be nice, I suppose, to have someone to come home to. But, I have my routine and need no one else to make me happy.
It’s pretty cool.
Living alone is wayyyyyyyy better for me....
I don’t live alone.
I live with a cat.
Yep. My cat doesn’t live alone either.
“He notes the contrast between life alone and a chaotic house without telling us what the downside of living alone is.’’’ Yeah, right. Irony is lost on this guy. Five sisters? Sheesh. I have four brothers and two sisters. I was the middle kid. Two older and four younger. “Chaotic’’? This guy doesn’t know the meaning of the word.
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