Urban Tribes | Ethan's Top Five

Ethan's Top Five Reasons Why Today's Young Adults Are Freer than any Generation in American History (Part One):

1. We have only ourselves to take care of. No generation has clung to its freedom from spouse and children with such tenacity.

2. Our parents no longer think it's their job to be stern advice givers. While they often encourage us in our education and careers, they do not, as a general rule, threaten disinheritance if we shack up, buy a motorcycle, or drop out of med school to follow the call to become a Zen monk or a handbag designer.

3. Other traditional advice givers tend to stay out of our faces, too: pastors, teachers, bosses, mentors. In all likelihood they understand that, as a group, they have no high horse to ride in on. Divorces, drug use, and suburban "key" parties loom large in their memories.

4. We feel freer of the consequences of our actions and enjoy plenty of forgiveness for our mistakes. We can date the wrong person for years, start on one career, quit, go back to school and try another. Wisely or not, we share the sense that it can all be undone. *

5. We have unprecedented freedom in how we pursue our romantic relationships. There is a multiplicity of socially acceptable options, from serial dating to serial monogamy to long-term relationships to marriage. Most of us, in fact, switch among these different paths. A serial dater might become a serial monogamist, with a long period of abstinence (chosen or not) in between.

* Of course we're not free from all consequences--AIDS, unplanned pregnancy, and getting hit by a bus among them. But for those who are routinely cautious every time they cross the street or a bedroom threshold, these calamaties are easy to avoid.

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More on the above topic can be found in chapter 1: "Confessions of a 'Never-Married.'"

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The complete list of Ethan's Top Five!

Ethan's Top Five Things to Tell Your Parents When You Are Still Single at Age 30 (or 35, or 40)

Ethan's Top Five Reasons To Be Happy about the Prospect of Being an Older Parent

Ethan's Top Five Reasons Why Cupid Still Has a Pulse on College Campuses

Ethan's Top Five Reasons Why a Marriage Delayed Is a Marriage Improved

Ethan's Top Five Reasons Why Being in an Urban Tribe Is Bad for Your Love Life

Ethan's Top Five Frustrations Women Express about Men They've Begun to Date

Ethan's Top Five Things Urban Tribes Should Avoid

Ethan's Top Five Guidelines to Dating within Your Urban Tribe