Pretty much every place I've been to that has involved being in a group has been like this. School, university, work, volunteering, interest groups, family, ect ect ect. Mondays will always be dominated by talk of what everyone has done over the weekend with their partners, families, friends. And Thursdays and Fridays will be about what pub everyone is going to on Friday night, and what everyone is GOING to do on the weekend with their partners, families, friends. I could never join in, and in most cases if I did try to it would only increase the bullying about being single (with assumptions about my sexuality). Even with family, it was always the old question of "Have you got a girlfriend yet?", which then became "Why haven't you got a girlfriend yet?" .... followed by a diatribe of the usual cob-webb coated 'advice' .... and now they don't even bother with that because they already know the answer I will give. But I get 'locked out' of conversation at even the most simplest of family gatherings, because all anyone talks about is their children and their friends, and so on and so forth. I think it gets worse as you get older, because once you get in to your 30's it just seems to be expected that you will have kids, or at least be in a relationship, and not having either makes it harder to have/find friends, I feel, because most people want friends who are in the a similar life situation as they are. A single person .... and I don't mean someone who is single by choice .... is seen as a social burden.
Thinking about how people who are in relationships will have their own problems doesn't make being single feel any better. At least, not for me. Maybe if you have chosen to be single it might help in some way. But I don't want to be single. I think everyone knows that relationships come with their own problems and stresses, and saying that we should think about how the 'grass is always greener' just feels kind of ... well ... condescending. If you've chosen to be single, well, good for you. But not everyone wants to be. Some of us just want the chance not to be.
