5 Reasons Why Cuffing Season is Fantastic for Singles

girl with coffee

You’ve probably heard an elderly neighbor or relative moaning about the time of year when the long days of glorious sunshine are but a distance memory, and the country is in the grip of falling leaves or winter snows just around the corner. For anyone in the throes of a loving relationship this can only mean one thing: cuffing season. The evenings may be getting darker but this marks a time when partners can retreat into domestic bliss, cuddling in front of fires, supping hot drinks while gazing into one another’s eyes, then immersing themselves under the duvet caring not a jot about the onset of frost, sleet or snow.

For singletons, observing all this activity might bring a pang of regret. If you aren’t participating in cuffing season perhaps it’s a time of year characterized by dread? Nonsense! Here’s why cuffing season should be flipped – it’s when any of your friends involved in a relationship should be jealous of singles.

Freedom

If there’s one thing cuffing season reveals in stark relief, it’s not what people who are single are missing. It’s the freedom that happily committed couples have cut themselves adrift from. Okay, if you do have a steady girlfriend/boyfriend, by all means hide yourselves away like a couple of hibernating bears, cut off from the outside world as the inclement climate forces you to focus inward. But if you aren’t tied down in this way it’s a period when you can really experience what it is to be young (or not so young), free and single.

When you don’t have to answer to anyone else the world is your oyster. For couples, a prime consideration behind making plans is the need to take their significant other’s tastes into account. This leads to compromises, or people feeling obliged to do something rather than giving it their full, unbridled commitment, because whatever it is simply isn’t their first choice. For a singleton, everything is their first choice. Their number one movie, their favorite meal, their choice of what to listen to in the car. This isn’t fostering selfishness. Few people see themselves as remaining single indefinitely, but during any inter-relationship lull they might as well make the most of being at the center of attention!

Please yourself

The appeal of a love nest can wear thin pretty quickly. What happens if there are disagreements about what TV series to stream next? Your favorite Netflix serial conflicts with that big sporting event your partner is insisting you watch – even if it’s a very one-sided interest. But possessing the ability to please yourself is really taking that freedom previously defined and refining it to fit your own personal outlook. Someone within a relationship might refer to this as self-indulgence. So what?! If you aren’t tied down to the same social constraints you have every right to spoil yourself once in a while.

Where your friends who are partnered-up would consider spending a date night at the movies, you can visit your local multiplex any time you want. Why not splash out and treat yourself to the plush executive seats, complete with a side order of your most gut-busting refreshments? With no partner to admonish you for your taste in spicy hot dogs or tubs of ice cream, kick back in your reclining chair and wallow in self-indulgence while enjoying the feature.

No distractions

There are times in life when it really does pay to be single, and cuffing season is an excellent example. For students, the winter is a time when the joyous releases of the summer holidays or the rigors of pre-term employment can be forgotten about as exams beckon. For a singleton, it’s a painless transition when the evenings start drawing in and serious studying must begin. Without the distraction of a partner they can devote themselves to their books and lecture notes. It’s much more difficult for students who are involved with someone, because they have other priorities. There will always be a temptation to spend more time with their loved one, whereas the singles in the halls of residence can still enjoy an active social life, but one where they can balance the play/work ratio far more effectively.

Party time

When couples head off to Christmas parties they might coordinate costumes, dressing according to a common theme. On a lot of occasions one of them will have felt obliged to humor the other to keep them happy. Singles can roll up to the party venue in whatever outfit grabs them. They’ll feel far more relaxed. What’s more, because they’re free of cuffing season and its emotional straightjacket, they can spend a while roaming around the party searching for fellow singles for no-strings-attached couplings.

Emotional maturity

A big issue with relationships, especially at the onset of winter and cuffing season, is the fact that couples spending more and more time together sometimes discover previously unnoticed flaws. This can put a strain on their happiness. Arguments can have more long-lasting consequences. For singles, the hassle and friction that often go hand-in-hand with a partnership are something they can observe from the outside with a sense of quiet relief it isn’t affecting them in any way. Couples who spend a lot of time lost in their own world will also miss out on their wider friendship circle.

So, in conclusion, the benefits of cuffing season can get blown out of all proportion. Reacting to colder, darker weather by getting all loved-up and focusing on ‘couply’ activities has some merit. But there are just as many pluses to being single at this time of year, if not more. Actually … a lot more. As has previously been stated, for singletons, the world is your oyster, a spirit of freedom exemplified by Flirt.com. Forget cuffing season. Now is the time of year for flirting.