* I was listening to my partner and her female friend discussing her friend's lot in life. It was a bit like deja-vu as I have read and heard the same story on many occasions.
In this instance I received a reprimand as unfortunately one of her friends comments caused me to laugh out loud. This was very insensitive of me.
Her friend was obviously a very confused and frantic female. For 18 years she had been pursuing the dream of ‘self-fulfilment’ (a career, etc) as pedalled by the feminist movement and many others. The people who put the ‘self’ in there have a lot to answer for (only rich narcissists achieve self-fulfilment). It’s a myth but it sells books, I might write one, there’s lots more out there where she came from.
Amidst all the debate there were three items that stood out:
. She was now 30-something (i.e. over 35) did not consider herself to be showing any sign of age (yeah right).
. She had not yet 'met her match in life'. …
. Her experience with men was 'fades out after a few weeks or months'.
The first point was she wasn't some odious dog.
The second point was, where was her promised admirer Mr Right.
The third point was that the poor dear can’t keep a man.
Unfortunately mothers no longer instruct their daughters in the art of keeping a man. The baby-boomers were the last generation to informed on this subject by those mothers who told their daughters that sort of thing,of course they ignored it and what a success they’ve been!
Here she is heading for the big 40 ,she's followed the recipe (..having fun for the sake of it...) and now there's no man, no real satisfaction.Basically she’s been sold a turkey and she isn’t happy. What she really wanted to know, without actually saying it, is how does she get and keep a man. She should have listened to my Grandmother and grabbed a good one before they were all snapped up.
I gathered from the look she gave me and then my partner that she thought my partner was in the same boat and I was just some bizarre, not very successful, project my partner had going, while waiting for Mr Perfect to come along.