Anyway, are you tired of people acting like your life is "less than" because you're not married? (Of course you are). Well, here's a little ammo for the next time you're engaged in one of these tedious conversations and want something new and different to say. A recent article in the New York Times reports that Singles actually make more of a contribution to society, their communities, and their families than married people do.
That's right. A study by the Council on Contemporary Families found that Singles are:
- More likely to take care of their parents
- More connected to their nieces and nephews
- More likely to visit their neighbors
- More likely to attend political gatherings, and are
- More active volunteers in their communities. (When married people volunteer, it's apparently more self-serving, e.g., coaching sports their kids are involved in, or being active in their own church, whereas voluntarism by Singles is more likely to focus on others, without it having a direct impact on their own lives).
Single people, especially those without kids, are often called selfish...for a reason I've never really understood. Selfish? Really? Well, we're busy being good citizens. Nuthin selfish about that.
And you know what, I really don't like this whole Single vs Married debate because most of my dearest friends are married...but I'm not really talking about them because they're lovely and mostly reasonable...so this is for all the marrieds who are not. :-o
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5 comments:
I'm inclined to agree with that study. The single individuals I know, including myself, embody a lot of what the study says single people are more apt to do. Very happy you shared this information.
Good point about pitting married and singles against each other. Where does that come from? It's like pitting working moms against stay at home moms. I guess we all want to somehow feel 'better' about our lifestyle choices?
Thanks for this, I went and read that article. I have been spending so much time worrying about my gay friends' right to marry, I have overlooked all the rights that we don't have as single people! I stay at a boring safe job that I hate because if I do get sick or something, no one can take family leave to take care of me. I have to hire someone.
We need to start a movement! That is apparently, what we do, after all.
-Jen
Sheality
I loved your post!!! I have been a silent reader for some time now, but this one just hit a button:-) Thanks for sharing these very important tidbits about singles...
I was reading the comments on that NYT article and although there were a lot of great ones, I started to get depressed at the high percentage of mungo-ignorant comments by people who were like "Nah I don't know any non-selfish singles over 40" (um, random number anyone??) and "singles don't deserve rights because they don't give birth to people who benefit society" (because apparently single people can't be parents). Infuriating. I like to think that those people are in the minority but it's still so shocking to see that they exist at all.
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