Dating vs. Relationship: What’s the Difference?
You meet someone, start having a good time, good laughs, and soon you just cannot spend a day without talking to them. That is the usual flow of falling in love for most of us. At this point, you start asking yourself everyday, ‘What are we? Friends or partners? In a relationship or dating?’
If a war is raging inside you and you cannot decide between dating vs. relationship, what’s the difference? We are here to help you. There are a few terms you should know before you decide to take your relationship to the next level.
You must understand whether you need more time to get to know your partner and keep dating or whether you have reached the stage where you can trust your partner and start making life-changing commitments.
Definition of Dating and Relationship
At present, it is easy to get lost in the different names, terms, and definitions of dating and relationships. Before deciding where you are standing in your dating life, let’s know how you can define dating and relationships.
When Can You Say You Are Dating?
Dating is the initial yet crucial stage of liking someone. It is where you get the chance to explore your partner’s love interest. Depending on how perfectly you sync together in everyday life, it can last for a short time or a long time.
You can date a person you met through a dating app or your high school prom partner. People start dating after they ensure they both are interested in investing their time and energy.
Dating is the exploration stage when two people decide whether they want to part ways or spend the rest of their lives together.
If you have been single for quite some time, consult an online dating coach. You can even consult how you can proceed to have a healthy and non-toxic relationship with the person you are dating now.
At present, couples are exploring different dating options, such as being in a casual dating phase and engaging with multiple people together.
People are becoming more vocal and interested in stating their sexual and emotional preferences and exploring whether they can get a partner with similar interests before moving up to the commitment stage.
So, you are dating when you are not committed to having a long-term relationship, starting a family, or having any financial interest together.
You are having a good time with your partner and keep things as it is until you both are sure that you want to commit to a single person, which can potentially lead to marriage and making more serious decisions in life together, for example, buying a house or investing money and involving each other’s family matters.
When You Are in a Relationship?
Suppose you are together with your partner in front of your friends, and someone asks, ‘How long have you two been in a relationship?’
This can turn into an awkward question if you two have been dating for a long time and your friends don’t know when you started getting exclusive.
It is an important discussion between lovers because it means a handful of emotional aspects in the other person’s life-
- It shows how serious you are about involving the other person in your life.
- It also shows that you are respecting where you stand in your relationship.
- You can avoid embarrassment in front of people and say out loud whether you are still dating or you have upgraded it to a ‘relationship.’
- It can be a smooth transition from liking someone to fully committing to them. You can still draw boundaries and create a safe place for arguments about life decisions.
- You can decide if you want to start living together initially or get married.
- Making decisions about renting or buying property becomes easier, and you will know how your partner manages life financially.
- It removes the chances of one person thinking they are still in the dating phase while the other is thinking they are in a relationship.
This is even why relationships after 40 can be happier; you know what you are doing, and there are fewer chances of misunderstanding.
Finally, when you are in a relationship, you can show your true self in front of your partner and declare your love in front of the world.
How Can You Differentiate Between Relationships and Dating?
Couples do almost similar stuff when they are in love, dating, and in a relationship, and that can be confusing for someone when it comes to defining their relationship status. Let’s discuss a few activities.
- Comfortably Enjoying Time Together:
You have been dating someone for a long time, and you no longer opt for dressing up to formally date. Instead, you simply enjoy each other’s company, stay home, and watch movies. Congratulations! You have certainly moved up the ladder from dating to being in a relationship.
Feeling comfortable around your partner is one sign that you have passed the dating stage with flying colors and that your partner feels comfortable around you and has stopped being on guard.
- Introduction With Friends and Family:
Not everyone prefers to introduce a stranger to their friends and family until they are sure that the relationship is turning serious. If your partner decides to introduce you to their friends or invite you to their family function, you can think of it as a positive sign of accelerating your relationship phase.
If your partner hides you from the family or introduces you as a friend, you should focus more and discuss your expectations of each other.
- Trusting Each Other With Important Decisions:
If you are afraid of asking your partner whether you are dating or in a relationship, you can look for signs if your partner trusts you or makes decisions by themselves without asking you.
Action speaks louder than words, and it is evident that you can learn more from how the person is acting in tough times. This is important as you may get hurt, get emotionally involved with someone, and have to part ways after a few days.
Talking about financial decisions, mutual funds, mortgages, and house rents can be a starter when you are moving to the advanced stage of dating.
If you have started making these decisions together without declaring your love or commitment, this can turn into a messy heartbreak as you’ll have more baggage with a broken heart.
Therefore, talk to your partner about how long you want to walk together on the path of life before getting involved any further.
- Losing Interest in Other People for Dating:
The case is different in open relationships, where couples keep dating other people. In mutually decided polyamorous or polygamous relationships, both partners decide together how they want their life to be while engaging with other people.
For monogamous people, the priorities change for a single person. They become the center of their universe and all of their activities. Both of them stop looking for other people’s attention regardless of whether the matter is sexual or emotional.
What Do You Need to Keep in Mind?
Here are a few statements you must keep in mind before jumping to conclusion:
- Consider the length of your time with your partner. The seriousness people look for in a relationship comes with time. If you have yet to spend enough time getting to know each other, you should at least spend adequate time before progressing to a relationship from the dating stage.
- Look for stability. If your partner is giving you mixed signals and ignoring you completely from time to time, it is not a sign of a healthy relationship. Save yourself from the worst heartbreak.
- While dating, there are no commitments to stay for a long-term relationship, and you can meet other people until you commit. But, if you prefer dating someone else than your current partner, it is better to let them know, show them respect, and not waste their time.
Conclusion
We hope that this article clarifies your confusion about the fine line between dating and being in a relationship. You should keep in mind that not everyone looks for a relationship while dating. They prefer meeting new people to get to know each other’s life interests.
So, when you are enjoying quality time together as a couple, keep focusing on enjoying that instead of stressing about where the situation is going.
The time you will spend together will define your situation to be better or in the worst case scenario, you can walk in the opposite direction, which is better than spending life in confusion that you could have got a partner with a different personality or interests.
Have a healthy dating life and always discuss emotional aspects of your situation so you can avoid getting into awkward situations and have a clear picture of what’s going on in your life.
Passionate Writer, Blogger and Amazon Affiliate Expert since 2014.
