I was never married and I simply don't regret it. What you said is valid for both sides. I don't even make any effort to get into a relationship. If it happens naturally, brilliant. If not, let me enjoy my freedom. Simple.

Absolutely. I was married once for 8 years and have a daughter and a son. When I got my divorce back in 1969, I knew that I never wanted to be married (I do not consider myself to be good marriage material) and I did not want more children. I got a vasectomy immediately and have remained single and have lived alone for over 50 years now. My life has been very good with the decisions I made and I have no regrets.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I have ended up where I needed to be."

I agree. My ex took my apron off my body to wash dishes BEFORE I agreed to marriage. After, the dishes sat in the sink for the entirety of several weeks while I was out of state working.

I have no plans to remarry and enjoy my freedom as a single person. I am lucky that I have a female friend who I can share life's adventures with, and a wide circle of other friends, which is good enough.

I accomplished a lot more when I'm single. I stay single by choice because I don't want to go and repeat my last two relationships. I'm at peace being single.

As usual, men are the problem.

But in addition to that: I think maybe there is some choice in my singleness. I meet women that I might be able to date if I put all of my time and energy into the challenge. But shit! I need to have some time and energy left for me.

My male friends don't cost me anything and don't demand anything from me. Of course there's no sex, but shit! I guess I'm just not willing to put the monumental effort into it anymore.

Sounds reasonable.

Decades ago I spent about 8 years living with a woman. To the best of my recollection cooking and dishes were a team effort. Mowing, weeding, painting, shoveling, mechanical, electrical and plumbing, was my job. However, with the exception of getting her house ready for sale, I seldom vacuumed the house or cleaned the bathrooms.

My favourite (without benefits) room-mate (John) was during my college dorm days. Although he was a hard-core Christian (read his bible in German every night and played organ for his church every Sunday) he was also a near Shelden level genius (I greatly enjoyed our nightly discussions) and an absolute neat freak; bed always (bounce a quarter on it) made tight, everything spotless, absolute order. He stood out in the student body so I recruited him and out of respect, and mutual agreement, I maintained the same level of order he lived with and it was always fun returning from class to a clean living space of less then 150 sq feet dictated by order. When he graduated with his four 3.98 (he got a B in oboe) GPA degrees in three years and transfered to Stanford for his advanced degrees, my new room-mate was a typical person. The room quickly descended into clean but disordered chaos. Having John as a room-mate was, I believe better then the option of living alone would have been.

For just under fifteen years I have lived alone in my 3,200 sq foot house with an attached double car garage. I love order but even with all this space I do not (can not?) return to the good old days of having John as a room-mate order. Occasionally I wonder what it would be like to share this space with someone who would expect a higher level of consistent order. When I started researching to build my home theatre I did a lot of reading to discover the best practices for speaker selection, placement, acoustic treatment etc, many articles referenced the WAF (Wife Acceptance Order) to meet the aesthetic/functional approval of “the wife”. I have changed many aspects of the theatre and occasionally wonder if a another person’s input during the original construction would have reduced the need for change.

"Married women friends complain about their critical, controlling husbands. They envy my freedom, peace and quiet."

Yea, any relationship where the man (or woman) attempts to or succeeds in controlling their partner is a relationship I would consider “Sick”. I am aware through stories roughly an equal number of relationships where one partner attempts or successfully dictates the freedoms of the other as relationships where no restrictions are imposed or attempted to be imposed on the other. I guess I am lucky as have never been in, and am not a product of that variant of a “Sick” relationship.

Although I am a bit of an outlier, reviewing all the “Sick” married relationships I am aware of, there are an equal number of women who restrict the freedoms of their hubbies as husbands who restrict the freedom of their wives.

I also love my single life but at times, wish I could establish a relationship to share intellect (and sex) with a compatible female life partner.

Trivia: Last week I ran across another study (shared on Facebook by Jim Barrows from the Atheist Experience) that demonstrate single women are generally happier then married women. Last study on that topic I ran across was decades ago. Ranking from that study happiest to most unhappy: Married men, Single women, Single men, and the least happy: Married women.

No, I'm not,

So what happened? You tell me. I married a woman I loved and over the years she changed into a woman I didn't know anymore then came the cheating, the lies, and my frustrations over what she had become. In the end, she dumped me, divorced me, and moved to Tenn.

I married my best friend who became my ex-wife. I'll never understand how she could change so completely. I understand people will undergo some changes in life: you hate vegetables, now you like them, you think the color blue looks good on you, now you think it makes you look fat, you were happy with your job, now you aspire to be in upper management, that;s all expeted but to become someone your partner no longer recognizes is , frankly, bullshit.

I'm currently single by choice. I believe in marriage and long term relationships. They are wonderful and I see happy marriages all the time.

I used to think I had to have a partner to get through life, and society used to tell us that all the time. I felt pressured to get married before I was ready and it was a failure. My mistake. Instead of the ideal where marriage is a synergy where two people are better, brighter, more beautiful together than the sum of the two individuals, I was living in a personal deficit, not even a fraction of myself. It wasn't until I left that situation that I began to build myself into a whole person.

I am currently still repairing the damage to my psyche, and can see myself joining my life to someones for a fuller more beautiful life someday, but if that never happens I'm totally fine on my own. It took some time to realize I CAN go places by myself, and do as I please. While I'm not ruling out ever having a relationship again, I'm not sure it's really for me. I'm enjoying living my life fully on my own terms.

Nobody will be marrying me for my cooking or housekeeping skills, so maybe that's a good thing, haha! I'd rather just have fun, enjoy life and share domestic responsibilities in a fair manner.

I've got to say that my long term boyfriend, for all his faults and mine, never complained about my cooking or cleaning, nor I his. Lucky for me, he did his share of the cooking, cleaning and laundry. That may be because he's always been single and independent.

I spent 2 years telling a friend I needed to get a divorce.
Then I was surprised by a divorce, so I went back to my friend and cried "I'm being divorced! and they think it's their idea!"
Yay! freedom after 14 years and two kids.
That was in 2007, and it's better this way.

Widowed and now single by choice. I had two marriages in my life. One was terrible, but produced my two great son’s. The second one was the one I wish I had married the first time, and it was truly a partnership.

I did consider one other person about a year ago, but once I saw his home and experienced his behavior toward my pets and how his place was sort of a shrine to his deceased wife, I knew we were not a match.

After that I realized I am better on my own and would only entertain a male friend to do things with, like concerts, dinner out, fishing and camping, traveling etc. I do miss the physical aspect of a relationship, but not enough to try it again.

Yet here I am. Single a brilliant cook and I can do chores.

I see more possibilities than single or married/cohabiting. Those in part time relationships may be monogamous and see themselves as a couple, some may not. The same goes for poly people that have a primary and other relationships.

Pro's and cons both lifestyles. The thing with love, can't define it and when/ if it happens, often not by choice.
Happily single, but open to co-habitation where we get to play with each others wobbly bits (one advantage to getting older, more wobbly bits) with the ability to be comfortable in each others silence. I find that pleasurable as it is a shared pleasure.
Relationships are just an agreement to put up with each others shit. Swings and roundabouts, never going to be perfect.

Single, never married, no kids. All by choice.

By choice? No, by her passing. If ever again I'll be real choosey and Ladies, some of us men are able to share the work load and the emotional part of a relationship. I have one in mind but it's not to be just now, maybe soon if the universe wills.

I'm with you, Lit. I'm done with marriage too.

Good for you. I see my girlfriend once or twice a week. We have a great time together and are crazy in love. We talk of a future (3-4 yrs?) where we'll be in one place together.

Who knows how we'll adapt to more of each other? It's kind of ....scary
I only know that we are perfect for each other, enjoy each other's company and respect each other now.

Same here, I'm done. If I find someone interesting to be around and intelligent to talk to, I would have no hesitancy in taking it to good friends with benefits but I enjoy my solitude. My ability to do what I want to do without being forced to do "couple" things constantly is appreciated. I'm part of a meetup group in town here and I join them often for picnics at the park, a play at our local theater, or listening to music. But I also have time to myself at my choice to read, to research items I find interesting, and to learn. I never have to clean a mess anyone else left for me except for the cat and that's a rare thing.

It's a good life and I'm happy with it.

one guy did say "ex-wife".
noted