Trigger warning: incels, mass shootings I had a bit of an epiphany yesterday. I realised that in order for society to start accepting and treating single people better, children should be educated about the fact single people exist and what it means to live a full and good life as a single person. Relationship and sex education is taught in UK schools and in recent years there has been a shift towards teaching children about healthy relationships including covering topics such as coercive control and abuse as well as things like consent and revenge porn. This is all really welcome but why are we only teaching kids about being in relationships? Why aren’t we also teaching kids that it’s OK to be single and that being single doesn’t make you a loser or a failure?
This resonates so much. We were taught (in my very strict religious school) that families come in one size only, and the word spinster was still thrown around like the worst possible fate. I was so desperate in high school to always be someone's girlfriend, and this bled into my twenties. It wasn't until I started therapy that I was finally able to recognise the ways I had sacrificed my own personal development in my desperate quest to avoid being single. I would love young people to learn all the ways being single is empowering and enriching and whole.
This resonates so much. We were taught (in my very strict religious school) that families come in one size only, and the word spinster was still thrown around like the worst possible fate. I was so desperate in high school to always be someone's girlfriend, and this bled into my twenties. It wasn't until I started therapy that I was finally able to recognise the ways I had sacrificed my own personal development in my desperate quest to avoid being single. I would love young people to learn all the ways being single is empowering and enriching and whole.