Navigating through Situationships

“What are we?" you ask yourself as you take the 47-minute tube ride going to their place at 11 pm on a Thursday. The annoying grey area we call “situationship” makes you question, “Am I just his/her favourite past time or are we building up for something more?”. Here’s the most effective way to tackle situtationships.

Establishing dating goals

I know the 3-date rule is used for “sexy time” but it’s also your chance to get vulnerable. Ask a hard-hitting question. An example would be your dating goals. Short-term, long-term, life partner, f*ck buddy there are no wrong answers. Just make sure you set your boundaries early. TalkSpace gives brilliant tips and tricks as to how to do so.

Time is of the essence

It takes men 88 days to fall in love and 134 days for women according to New Scientist on average. The keyword is "on average" - it may take longer or shorter. After hitting that three-month period of “hanging out” you should check in on that person how they feel about you and the relationship and see if you’re in-sync and if not, you can stop wasting each other’s time.

Ready to Reflect

Although the last two points focus on them, you should check your own goals and needs to see if you are on track to achieving them. Your goals might have also changed. It takes a lot of reflection to figure this out. You need to communicate it to the person you’re seeing right away to avoid hurting them.

Keep Your Mind and Options Open

You probably heard this cliché saying countless times but just “go with the flow”. Sometimes pressure is put upon you to go the distance with someone whether that’d be family, friends and society as shown by the study done by PewResearch. Take it on your own pace and have fun.