LESS PRESSURE TO FIND THE ONE
Though people of my generation may lament how kids these days aren’t as interested in dating, the upside is that young Singaporeans no longer feel pressured about it.
My ex-boss, who’s in her 60s, confided in me that the worst decade of her life was her 20s: “My parents, relatives, colleagues, friends and even just society in general, seemed to be rushing me to find someone and get hitched and have babies … since I was single then, I felt like a terrible failure and that there was something horribly wrong about me.”
Another friend said that the message Gen X parents give their kids is completely different from previous generations. “I tell my four daughters they don’t need to feel any pressure to have a relationship, or a marriage, or children. They just need to grow up self-sufficient and happy,” she said.
Her oldest daughter, who’s in her 20s, has never had a relationship, and neither have her group of six close friends. Instead, they meet once a week in someone’s home, to eat and chat while crafting together – crocheting, knitting, beading or painting.
A RESPONSE TO HARSH REALITIES
It is indeed a positive development that young people aren’t made to feel abnormal or lacking for being single. This trend is playing out in other parts of the world too.
A survey of unmarried Japanese people aged 20 to 49 found that 34 per cent had never dated. The most common reason that women gave for not wanting marriage was because it limits their lifestyles, while the top reason given by men was the loss of financial freedom.
In South Korea, more than 30 per cent of women and 50 per cent of men in their 30s are single. There’s also a social movement of young women rejecting dating, relationships, marriage and motherhood, in protest of misogyny in the country.
