1. I don’t have to spend time with people who insult me, call me names, and think I am a horrible rotten worthless person.

2. I don’t have to spend time with people who dislike me.

3. I don’t have to spend time with people who are bored when they spend time with me.

4. When there are holidays, I can spend them with people whose company I enjoy and who enjoy my company.

5. I don’t have to do anything for people who are unappreciative of whatever I do.

6. I don’t worry about nasty messages on my answering machine to
greet me when I come home. (If my daughter is reading this, remember
that not everything applies to you.)

7. I can spend time doing things I enjoy with other people who enjoy
them too. They don’t consider these things stupid or boring. I like
antiques, movies, art, dining out, and reading.

8. I don’t have to spend time with people who would prefer to be somewhere else.

9. I don’t have to worry about how I am going to make someone happy who would prefer to be somewhere else.

10. I don’t have to be irritated because someone is not enjoying
where I am taking them to eat or freaking out over how much I am
spending on the meal. (If Robin is reading this, see note with #6.)

11. I don’t have to spend time around people who I have to walk on eggshells around.

12. I don’t have to spend time with people who tell me later that
they were uncomfortable, unwelcome, unsomething and that I tried to
trap them in my house during an ice storm. Nor do I have to listen to
them when they insist that their spouse felt the same way. This does
not make it true. Sorry but it doesn’t. And no, that was not a sorry in
the sense of an apology. That was an ironic sarcastic sorry.

13. I don’t have to put aside time for people who come to visit and
then want to spend their visit going elsewhere without inviting me
along. I could have spent my time doing something else too if I knew
that they didn’t want actually to visit with me.

14. I don’t have to spend time with people whose visit I was looking
forward to and then who told me how much I didn’t want to see them.

15. I don’t have to spend time with people who assume that the
maintenance of roads in my state is the same as maintenance of roads in
their state and that my intention is to trap them in my house. Who
needs this? Like I don’t know how roads are maintained where I live and
where they live?

16. I know that I won’t be getting a phone call from them so I won’t be expecting one.

17. I don’t have to wait for people to visit who don’t want to see me.

18. I don’t suffer migraine headaches any more. This alone may make being estranged worth it for me.

And the top reason why I am happy to be estranged:

19. I have more time and energy for people who want to see me, who
enjoy my company, who like to talk with me, who appreciate me, who hug
me and whom I hug, This is very cool!

Snicks