Rent a what?!

It was brought to my attention over greens and german chocolate cake that people are renting boyfriends/girlfriends for the holidays. Now I had to do a little online research to find out how many of these “rent a boyfriend/girlfriend/” services exist. These services are big business and there are plenty to choose from. The goal of this service is to help people avoid the holiday “pressure” of family and other people asking questions like, “Where is your date?”, “What happened to the “one” you brought to the last holiday dinner” or “Why aren’t you dating?”  Let’s stop here. No one can pressure you unless you allow it. What happened to just being honest and saying, “I’ll bring someone around when I feel the time is right” or “I thought I would be cuter if I came alone” or “My love life isn’t up for discussion. I came to eat!” (Being honest is free. No service charge for that!)  I get that some of the pressure comes from within. Here you are sitting at the table surrounded by couples and you have walked into this holiday gathering by yourself. You may start to look around wondering if you are the only one who doesn’t have a boyfriend/girlfriend/fiancé/husband/wife..something?!  I’ve been on both sides: I’ve been “attached” to someone at the table and I’ve been “single” at the table. Even though those questions hit my mind, being the “single” one didn’t make me feel any less or incomplete. It certainly didn’t make me feel like I should’ve rented a boyfriend just for appearances! That is not cute nor is it hot. I felt complete because I was surrounded by my family. I felt complete because I was talking, laughing, and joking with the people I love. It may seem as though I’m mad at these services. I’m really not. The creators of these services have found a niche to make legal money. These “rent-a-date” services feed into the notion that people would rather paint pictures and be pseudo, rather than just live life for real.