At this stage in my life, I've learned from my mistakes and don't HAVE to have one ...but I am thinking about looking again after forcing myself to stay single for over a year and do "me". For me it is because I have a healthy sex drive in which I don't want to turn into a skittles commercial, about companionship and just enjoying male company. However this wasn't always the case for me. I have one child that I had way too young, still a teen, and I became dependent on men because I had no family and no support system. This landed me in the wrong relationships. I see single mothers make the same mistake, being so frazzled that they will reach out and grab just about anybody for some kind of support, whether that be moral, financial, or whatever. What I don't understand, is woman who go and do it all over again and have more children in relationships that aren't right for them. I see it all the time....as soon as their relationship hits the rocks they wind up pregnant and I believe it's intentional whether subconsciously or not and I see it as insanity. Also consider biological programming, where woman tend to get attached to those they sleep with and the dopamine rush takes away all reasoning skills.
There is nothing wrong with desiring a partner, it's just people don't stop to think on (or be honest with themselves)what it is they want from a partner and what their motivations are. There's allot of social conditioning yes, but allot of people seek relationships to fill a void or fix something broken within themselves. "There is another insidious phenomenon frequently afoot. It is a variety of what Freud called a "repetition compulsion." A repetition compulsion is a neurotic defense mechanism. Here's how it works: The repetition compulsion is an attempt to rewrite history." (psychology.com)

Go ahead and flame me now lol.