Anyone else enjoy their own company and not feel like socialising very often?

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Does anyone else feel the same way? I have friends, quite a wide circle really, and I do socialise, but I just can't seem to get excited about meeting up with friends in the way that some people do. I enjoy a cuppa and a catch up, but I'm always happy to get home afterwards and to have some time at home on my own.

I've never really been one for socialising a huge amount at the school gates, and I've just passed a group of other mums on my way home having a good old gossip. I spoke to them briefly but although I could have stayed and chatted couldn't wait to get home to a bit of quiet and me time.

I just wondered if others feel the same way as I do, really.

When I was younger I loved my own company. I always felt odd though because it seemed that everyone else was meeting up all the time with friends and going to parties etc . So I started copying them and started going out every night. Alcohol was needed to help me be the person I thought I should be. It took me years and years to realise that its ok to be me. When I go shopping etc I will talk to anyone and enjoy it as there is no commitment but the minute someone suggest meeting for coffee I feel my heart sink. Having people to my home is exhausting and stressful and I cant wait for them to go. Nowdays I am happy to be "me". Luckily my DH is the same and although we go out a lot alone as a couple, we are happiest with each others company.

Its easier as you get older because you realise that is ok to be you.

Hmm, I'm a little different. I want and need social interaction but don't know how to get it! I am mid-50s and married to a homebody. I have one good friend but don't see her / talk to her often. My evenings are spent on cooking & eating, housework, MN, some crafting, a bit of reading. My work has become stressful and I've let it become the dominant thing in my life. I need someone or something to help me unwind and recharge in a way that the activities above don't allow (too much thinking time to mull over my work problems), even although I actually enjoy them anyway. DH works long hours and (I feel guilty writing this) he needs a fair bit of emotional support (suffers depression, works on contracts so is always stressing about being out of work, you get the idea). I have too many 'drains' in my life and not enough 'radiators'. I don't know how I would fit friends into my life anyway. What is it they say: you always find time for the things you really want to do.

JustSayNo since you spend time in the evenings on crafting, could you go to a group who meet up to do this? What about blogs. There are lots of lovely crafting blogs out there where you can interact with the blogger about her work. I know of one lady who met a couple of fellow crafters through her blog and they meet up regularly and have now collaborated and are starting their own craft business. OR you could start your own craft blog.

Me!
I'm surrounded by people at work, home, at the school gates, and whilst I like most of these people, I really like being all alone in front of the telly. Socialising when I don't have to just cuts into my being at home bra off time!
It annoys all my friends and my mother because I'll "never meet a man slobbing on the sofa" but so be it. Home is definitely where my heart is! Also I'm only 29, so if it gets "worse" with age, I'm in trouble!

Hello fellow introverts...there are plenty more of us over here Introverts thread

I like my own company and that of my children and my close friend.

We do a lot together as a family, as does my friend with hers. It means me and my friend can go for a month or so without meeting up but we are still in contact with each other. This week we start golf lessons together, its once a week for now but we decided on the lessons as 'us time'. We're both close to 60 now and the older we are getting the more we really just do want to be with people who are closest to us.

My friend has always had a busy social life with others whereas I didn't, through choice, and people who didn't know us very well have always been surprised at the role we have in each others lives as well as each others family. She often gets told - oh you're Cariads friend, and I get the same from people she knows. We've been friends/family for 30 years and we've been each others birth partners as well as live through the death of her little girl and my son being very severely disabled. Our children are like brothers and sisters to each other and are all pals who also spend time together. One of her sons in fact lived with me for about 3 years at one stage due to travel problems.

The above is the extent of my socialising - my children and our families.

I was recently away on a Cruise, I was with my brother, his wife, and her sisters in-laws. Never again with a group that size, there was 9 of us, and by day 6 I was going it alone and pleasing myself for the most part. Ive now got the Cruising bug and in May Im going on one alone for 8 days. Im excited and Ive absolutely no qualms about being alone on holiday.

Can I join in please.

I'm having a bit of an identity crisis at the moment.

I want to be alone, but its not good for me at the moment.

I've posted this in the wrong thread, ignore me!

Sorry x

Coming to this late – but what an amazing thread! I enjoy friends and socialising, but do need plenty of time to recharge. I agree with a poster up-thread who said she feels overwhelmed and stifled if she doesn’t have enough time to herself.

I break up for Christmas on 18 Dec, and am looking forward to a few delicious days to myself before DH finishes work on 23 Dec. I should add that I’m very happy with DH, but sometimes it’s just nice to have the house to myself for a while. My ideal day is to have something to do in the morning, ie hair cut or trip to the gym (an activity that gets me out the house but doesn’t require any social effort on my part, if that makes sense) and then the afternoon to myself, or vice versa. But by the end of the day, I’m looking forward to DH’s return from work.

I got a point last year, where I’d inadvertently let socialising slip a little, and started to feel isolated, and a little unwanted (why isn’t anyone calling???????) So I’ve made a real effort in 2014 to re-engage, and always do at least one social thing per week. This made me feel better about myself (it’s good to mix with people, but the validation is good too …….) and I’ve found that socialising is becoming easier and less of an effort, and because people are seeking me out my self-esteem has risen.

I’m very careful with Facebook – a few things I’m involved with are organised via Facebook, so I don’t want to delete my account, but I no longer browse the news feed; it always looks as though the whole world is permanently socialising, and it can make me feel really rubbish.

I know this post must read like a whole host of contradictions; I like to mix, I like to be alone, but if I don’t mix enough I feel panicky, and then too much time spent with other people wears me out.

But I’m so looking forward to a little time to myself before Christmas – a few cosy afternoons with the cat and my Kindle or Midsomer Murders DVDs ……. Bliss!!!

Oooooh, I'd love a day at home with the cat and the kindle!!!

Me too. I have a lot of acquaintances/friends (as in people I know in the village and might have a cuppa with now and then) and two very old friends I love dearly and trust. I don't see them more often than once a month, again just for a cuppa in their flats. My dh and I live very quietly together, we like peace and quiet and don't go out much.
I get tired very easily at any gathering, for instance church 'do's', and have to come home after about half an hour.
I'm almost a recluse. I read tons and knit/sew. I garden. All solitary pursuits while my dh is at work pt.
Some people are like this, just introverted. It isn't a sin. Nothing would exhaust me more than going out in the evening to a big 'do' and having to talk to lots of people with loud voices and music playing. It would do my head in!