Signs You Are in a Serious Relationship

You attend family events together and for the most part you really don’t mind spending time with them! There are a few circumstances where you might not hang out with one family because of a conflict or distraught relationship, but you both understand why you might not care to see the family. If you both have great relationships with your families, your SO should be happy to spend time with the people you love. Most of the time your SO will fit right in with your family as well. You have to have things in common with your SO and you typically have a lot of things in common with your family, so it shouldn’t be hard for the two to mesh.

I know it’s gross, but you know no boundaries anymore. You have spent so much time together you have seen and smelt each other at their worst. If you are still trying to leave the room before your burp or fart you are probably still in the early stages of a relationship. Some couples get to this point before others, so don’t fret.

Having a puppy together is like practice for having a child together. Yes you didn’t carry this little fluff ball around inside of you for nine months, but you would be surprised just how big of a commitment a dog is. You will run into discipline arguments, whether or not you will let it on the bed, arguments on whose turn it is to take it out, and of course what you will name it. Getting a dog or cat together calls for a lot of decisions that have to be made together. If you successfully made it through all of those little dilemmas of owning a pet together, you are in a serious relationship.

He owns the car while your name is on the lease for the apartment, but you have gotten to the point where it is just “our apartment is nice” or “our car is broke down again.” He has a key to the apartment, and you don’t ask to borrow his car anymore, you just say I’m taking the car. You kinda sound like a married couple when you decide to go shopping for a toaster together, but it’s “ours”, so that’s something. Usually this step occurs after couples decide to live together, but if you are in a long distance relationship this rule still applies. If you talk about your future and refer to things as “our’s” you are on the right track.

You know the other is busy, and they know you’re busy. You typically just wait until you see or call them at the end of the day to talk. You may send a few random texts throughout the day, but the number of texts you send has greatly decreased since you first started dating. You do find yourself constantly thinking about your boyfriend all day, but most of the time you refrain from texting, usually because you are in the middle of something.  This isn’t a bad thing at all. It shows signs that you trust each other, and that you have other serious things going on in your life (see next). As your relationship slowly transitions into the less frequent texting, this gives you the opportunity to send extremely sweet random texts to let your man know you are thinking about him.

Whether it is going to college and working part time, or having a great job. You don’t just focus on how great your relationship is anymore, you work together to make sure you can have a great relationship for the rest of your life. You both are working toward long term goals that will allow you to share the life you want together. Each of you having your own personal goals is extremely important for the relationship to be healthy. You both need to be equally focused on your own goals and supporting each other. If one of your goals takes the forefront it could make for an unhappy living situation for the other. If one of you is going to medical school you might have to focus on their goals first for a little while, but be sure to have a conversation about focusing on the others goals later on.

This is huge. When you break down and cry in front of him because you aren’t sure if you will be able to pay your rent this month you are allowing him to see that you aren’t perfect and don’t have your life together. Dealing with real world things together is a huge step and that can’t happen unless you get past the impressing stage.

He did something that upset you, or you thought you couldn’t achieve your goals while he achieves his. You thought about breaking up with him, but after thinking about life without him, you couldn’t do it and refuse to think about it ever again. That is how important he is to you. When you get to this point and realize if it were any other guy you would’ve probably went through, but you couldn’t imagine life without him. This is usually a brief but powerful moment.

Dinner at 5:30 and a movie at 6:40 so you can be in bed by 9:15 because you have a nightly ritual of sitting in bed together while you read and he looks at manly stuff on his phone. It’s real and it happens to the most exciting couples. Routine isn’t a bad thing though! You don’t go to the bar or party with friends every weekend. You both have realized why old married couples act the way they do and rather enjoy it. You still go to the bar and party with friends occasionally but there have been a few instances where you found yourself coming up with an excuse to avoid going out so you can stay home.

Depending on your situation one of you might pay for more than the other if one of you is in college, but even then the college student still helps out as much as they can. When you go stay with him you may go grocery shopping before you go. Or if you are going somewhere you both pay for gas. You grew up got passed the impressing each other stage are ready to be equals in the relationship.

When you’re in a love relationship many of Your insecurities disappear. There are times when you still care about how you look, it’s just a girl thing! But, most days you don’t care about your giant forehead, almost non existent but noticeable to you double chin, your height, or anything else you might worry about. He makes you feel loved. So loved you realize none of that matters. Women should realize that their insecurities are silly on their own, but sometimes it takes a good man to help us realize how amazing we are. You should have the same effect on him as well. Men also have insecurities, be sure to tell him just how sexy he is and how proud of him you are. Nice words from someone you love can change how you view yourself.   

If he’s being over dramatic, or got way to mad way to fast. You aren’t afraid to tell him so. Just remember that he will also speak his mind to you. It’s important for both of you to be able to do this, because sometimes we need someone to keep us in check with reality. Relationships are about making each other better people. For that to happen you have to be honest with each other.