Why It’s Better Not To Have A Valentine

by Anne Marie O'Connor

While I don’t want to be single forever, it’s a lot better than being with jerks who are also chopstick purists. And until Mr. Non-Jerk comes along, I’ve discovered there are a lot of consolations to being alone on Valentine’s Day:

1. Not having to fake it when you get that trademark long white box.
I know red roses are supposed to be the ultimate romantic gesture (or actually, the second most romantic gesture, after that little velvet box with a ring in it), but has anyone else noticed? They’re hideous! And since the poor guy shelled out a 200 percent premium to get you them on Valentine’s Day, you need to be Meryl Streep to fake that much appreciation. And let’s face it, I’m not that good an actress. I’d rather just buy my own flowers.

2. Less time scrubbing toilets and cleaning gunk out of the drainer, more time eating bon-bons and watching VH1 or doing whatever the heck you please.
Single women do less housework a week than married ones (10 hours for single women versus 15 hours for married), most of it apparently cleaning up after married men, who only do five hours, according to a Toulouse University study. (Single men do seven hours of chores, hence the telltale odeur of most bachelor pads).

So instead of picking up someone else’s socks and underwear (and washing them and folding them and putting them away), I have five extra hours a week to go out with friends, read the paper, see a movie, or just lie on the couch and look at my messy apartment without having to get up and do anything about it.

3. Bigger bucks.
Though the income gap between men and women is long-standing, some women do make more than men: Women in their 20s who live in big cities, most of whom are single. They earn up to 20 percent more than single men, a Queens College study found. The same did not hold true for women over 30, or those who lived in rural areas. Why? Because those women were more likely to be married, researchers speculated. Let Rush Limbaugh call me a crazed feminazi, but I like earning at least as much as a guy for the same work. (And single women aren’t just buying Manolos and Balenciaga bags, we’re also investing in homes; in fact, single women bought about 20 percent of the homes on the market last year.)