I see this with people at work. EG, their husband is away for a weekend and they're making a big song and dance about how they are going to get by for two days "alone" in the house. I actually find that deplorable and I am not a bit envious of relationships like that.

I think, though, it is somewhat the norm, and so is mostly accepted as "what" relationships are "meant to be". You're "meant" to want to be around the partner all the fucking time.

From a male point of view, I see a lot of men my age and older have been castrated by relationships. There is just something missing about them, because they have had women mothering them their whole lives. A lot of men have never bothered to learn to cook, never got to grips with basic domestic tasks, go through life like big babies - i.e. they've never learned to even look after themselves.

There is definitely a generational thing to this too. For example, my stepdad has been shacked up since he was 16 and he's now 70. He's like a big baby at times, and would probably crumble if my mum wasn't around to make meals, etc. I actually find men like this to be repulsive creatures (not saying my stepdad is, I'm saying that way of being is).

I think there is a strength in being FA. And I think that it is admirable. FAs usually have no one to trust except themselves, and no one to rely on neither. A lot of FA's probably have strong, resilient, independently minded personalities that would be great in an apocalyptic wasteland but pretty much unappreciated in a people person world.