Why do couples like hanging out with couples?

[perimenofertility]

As the title says, why do couples enjoy hanging out with other couples so much?
I am single now, but when I've been in a couple I have never particularly sought to spend time with other couples so I just don't get this. I always spend time with people (single, couple, group) who are my friends.
I am in a friendship group of six people. We periodically meet all six of us for dinner. But the four who are two couples regularly arrange "couples drinks" and don't invite me and other single friend. This really irritates me and makes me sad.
Similarly, I have a good friend at work, we have lunch or drinks together often. But she regularly has dinner parties I'm not invited to because it's for couples.
So I'm wondering, what is it you couples get from hanging out together that I can't join in with?

That seems very narrow minded and dismissive of people as individuals.

You can see it however you want 🤷‍♀️ Single people don’t fit in in a couples environment.

*It’s because single people are not in the same life stage. They’re not going through the same things couples are and they’re not having the same experience.

So if we’re doing a couples thing, single people aren’t part of that*

really? You can’t socialise with anyone not going through the same life stage?

what if one of your couple friends got divorced? You’d just ditch them because they’re no longer in the same life stage?

You can see it however you want 🤷‍♀️ Single people don’t fit in in a couples environment

no. Single people don’t fit in your couples environment.

there are many people who can include others regardless of their life stage or relationship status. I’d never not invite someone because they are single.

@Reallyreallyborednow None of that is what I said. On a normal night out, singles are of course invited.

But if we’re having a couples day out, evening dinner or other type of couple event, they are not invited because it is not an event for them. They don’t fit in.

But if we’re having a couples day out, evening dinner or other type of couple event, they are not invited because it is not an event for them.

Wtf is a couples event? I'm in my 50s, mostly been in a couple as an adult and I just see friends as friends. I don't think I've ever deliberately just spent time with couples, or singles (or young people or old people or women or employed/unemployed or educated/professors etc etc. )

It strikes me as a very strange way to behave.

Of course, men and women socialize differently.
When I'm out with the boys, the conversation and banter are more rumbustious.
In our group, the men tend to sit together and the women the same, then mix later on as the day/evening progresses.

A lot of the time it doesn't happen deliberately, or people think that they don't do it. But when they are considering who to invite to things, single people are often just not the ones that come to mind.

It's absolutely bizarre.

You can think it’s as strange and bizarre as you want to. Fact is, majority of couples prefer to hang out with other couples.

You can get your knickers in a twist over it all you want but it won’t make couples want to invite singletons.

OMG the 1950s are back.

OMG the 1950s are back

Because people act differently around same-Sex friends vs in couples? Nothing wrong with that, it's a different dynamic.

Not amongst my friends they don't.

@bubblescoop
What is couples environment?
Why do couples need / want that?

Key ring party?

Indeed. I find it creepy and suffocating.

Oh yeah banter 🙄

If you're acting differently when you socialise with men then that is probably something to reflect on.

I'm the same whether I'm socialising with men, women or mixed company. My ex told me that men can get the wrong idea because I'm fairly chatty. Talking about music, sport and work? Something wrong with them if they do.

I'm the same whether I'm socialising with men, women or mixed company. My ex told me that men can get the wrong idea because I'm fairly chatty. Talking about music, sport and work? Something wrong with them if they do.

Exactly. I'm the same, so is DH.
I couldn't be arsed moderating my behaviour in that way!

Why?

Cos Smugness.

As a few posts have already identified

'You single people don't belong here. This is a smug married party for supeiror married people'

Makes me all the more happy to be single tbh.

One of the most boring BBQs I ever went to was a "couples BBQ" organised by a work colleague of ex-H. There were three couples there and I ended up being bored to tears being stuck with the other two wives who spent most of the evening comparing their birth experiences.

On the other hand I had a group of friends in my 20s/30s who all started off either single or with partners. Gradually all of us except one got married and then some had children. It would never have occurred to me or any of the others in the group to exclude our single friend. I think a lot depends on how close you are as friends.

I also thing there are a lot of "smug marrieds" out there who look down on and pity single friends. I will never understand this attitude.

I don't think you can know that "a majority" of people will prefer that. This thread certainly doesn't that to be the case.

I'm also surprised that someone thinks "being in a couple" is a life stage so you've automatically got common ground with other couples. I have some friends I've known since school all of us are I relationships of over 10 years, but I wouldn't describe our life stages as the same at all.

Fact is, majority of couples prefer to hang out with other couples.

Maybe YOU do, I don't think most people do though.

What happens if a couple splits up? What do you do then? What if you only like one of the couple? It's a bizarre way to categorise your friends.... by place a value on being in a relationship instead of who they are as an individual.

Does the exclusion extent to men also, or is this only about single women?

Does the exclusion extent to men also, or is this only about single women?

also I would like an answer as to whether “couple nights” include gay couples.

or does that upset the “balance”?