Posted on 07/10/2018 12:17:25 PM PDT by Simon Green
A few months before my 42nd birthday, I was out to dinner with friends and found myself seated next to a well-known older male writer.
I happened to be in the final stages of finishing a proposal for a memoir about being a single woman over 40 without children, and was inwardly marveling at the timing of our encounter. I was a fan of his. Perhaps he might offer some wisdom? Words of encouragement?
As drinks were delivered I sketched the outline of the story: No one had prepared me for how exhilarating life could be on my own. I was traveling all the time, doing what I wanted, when I wanted, released from the fear of the clock that had dogged me through my 30s. Conversely, no one had warned me of the ways in which it would actually be difficult; my mother had been very ill, for instance, and part of the book was about caring for her.
No sooner had I finished than the famous writer placed his glass firmly on the white tablecloth, leaned back and declared: “Glynnis MacNicol, you have a terrible life!”
Not exactly the feedback I was hoping for.
He continued: “You’re all alone in the world, and have no one to help you.” He turned to my friends, dramatically interrupting their conversation. “Do you know how terrible this woman’s life is? She’s all by herself!”
My friends managed to snort back their drinks, barely. “But I’m fine,” I protested lightheartedly, hoping to return the discussion to writing. “I’m quite enjoying myself.”
He took a disbelieving sip of his drink. “I want to help you,” he said. He then instructed our server to wrap up his untouched steak and insisted I take it home.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Congratulation for a great PR idea to sell your upcoming novel about a woman in your situation. Tons of women will buy this best seller!
RWA
Am I supposed to believe anything in the NYT? It’d be the first time.
LOL.
It’s easy to be alone when you are young. She isn’t thinking past her next year, if that.
The day is coming when she will need someone to drive her home after a hospital stay of some sort.
She has yet to realize selfishness has a price. A high one.
She is an involuntary single.
That there is “Lipstick on a pig”!
8>)
There's a whole genre of this stuff. The supposed rationale for writing these screeds is always that other people constantly question the author's decision to remain single and/or childless, and she needs to set them straight. So, they tell the world about their amazing, worldly, free-as-a-bird lives. The fact that they think anybody wants to read this crap shows their narcissism, and probably explains why they're alone. Eat, Pray, Love, spin that wheel.
I don’t think even Laz would hit that
I believe him.
Some people are just not meant to be parents of a child and thankfully they realize this. Many more do not and the children suffer because of it.
I was not blessed with children but (I think) I make a much better uncle.
In your 40s, you still have enough distractions in your life not to miss not having kids.
In your 60s and beyond......not so much.
That’s ok. They’re importing all of Central America to perpetuate their ideology.
She can’t write either!
Biytch, are you really happy? Then why are writing a proposal for a memoir about being a single woman over 40 without children?
You wouldn’t be a good mother anyway.
We have no crumb crunchers but a couple of nieces and a nephew.
Neither of us are parental material.
I agree. In fact I would put it - I know people who should NOT have kids.
Wait until you’re in your 70s. You’ll still be child free. But you’ll also likely be friend-free, lonely and likely a source of worry for those few more distant relations who you remain in touch with. At least that’s what has happened to nearly all of the kid-free Boomers I know. Aging is miserable without the joy of children and grandchildren.
Run into quite a few that had 0 business with kids.
My best friends succeeded in adopting a fine baby boy a few years ago. That kid won the powerball in terms of loving parents.
For females, and on the other end of the scale, we have the insol - involuntary solitude.
Unfortunately, there are many in such a state, and they DO have kids, but those kids are... not helping.
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