How do you manage with lack of intimacy?

[TurtleJewels]

So single parents who don’t have any help or any “time off”? How do you cope with lack of intimacy?
I have pretty much accepted I will not be able to date for a very very long time (and haven’t for a long time already) but I am really missing physical intimacy. If I had a good relationship with my ex or he was a decent man I’d go back there just for the sex as that’s something he was very good at but as it stands he isn’t and that’s definitely not an option! I do have a high sex drive but I have had to put that aside as I don’t get any time off at all.

how does everyone else cope with the lack of sex? I know I’m probably going to get people telling me they don’t care if they ever have sex again but I can’t relate and have a high sex drive and just because I’m a mum that doesn’t mean I want to live like a nun but at the same time I am not in a position to meet anyone even for something purely casual, I’m in my 30s so don’t think my sex drives has completely disappeared just yet! Has anyone else been in this situation?

If I think about it too much, it does get me down. I am 47, divorced and coparenting with my ex. He's a good Dad and we're great friends, so sometimes, the pull is huge.
However, intimacy is a complicated process for me. I am probably a bit of a line wolf while single and I think limerence or mixed up priorities might hamper my parenting, so I am better off single. Since I started to view my life as a sort of career it had got easier. I don't want anything to take my focus away from my sons, and casual sex wouldn't work for me.
My coparenting arrangements are that I take my sons to their father and we stay there because he is ND and can't manage by himself, so I suppose the situation saves me from myself!
Don't know if this is any help, I do hope so. I get lonely too and it's rubbish at times, but the actual remedy could cause more issues than I have room for!
Take care OP, this particular circumstance is most likely not permanent. If it is, you will have your reasons for it being right thing for you.

Ive been single for over 7 years & dont get any , and at the age of 41 & it can get frustration .

You need to see the distinction between sex and intimacy. You can get intimacy from good conversation with friends, hugs with your child etc. it’s just sex that is so challenging single if you want the real thing not a toy

By intimacy I don’t mean just sex I mean everything around it like kissing, cuddling, holding hands, I don’t do that stuff with friends

It’s the sharing the basic day things I miss. Taking the dogs for a walk with another, like you said, just even someone to hold hands with, a cuddle, share a joke in bed watching a film. Someone to cook with. Someone to dote over my daughter with me :/