Solo-living with and without Partnering and Parenting

Abstract

People who live alone across the ages normally associated with child rearing are not necessarily turning away from couple relationships or parenting. Some have partners, some have children and those who are childless may not be making a lifestyle choice. This chapter explores the orientation of people living alone in early to mid-adulthood to partnership, parenting and the presumed intimacy that they bring. It is structured by comparison between men and women, across three different biographical situations: people living alone who have no partner or children; people living alone while in a couple relationship with someone who lives elsewhere; and parents living alone while their child or children’s main residence is elsewhere. These biographical circumstances can overlap, since some parents are also in couple relationships and, exceptionally, those who are single and childless sometimes take up a parenting role to a child or children of friends or family.