He hasn't asked me to be his girlfriend...

Eh? You're dating exclusively. That means you're his girlfriend.

I'd better go let DP of 18 years know lest she think she's not my girlfriend yet!

During one of those dates ask if he regards you as officially boyfriend/girlfriend.

Tell him how you feel and expecthim to do th esame.

I think you're confusing being his girlfriend and having long term committment. Clearly you're his girlfriend based on what you've written.

However, having said that, I've seen way too many posts on MN where a woman is 18. months in with a guy, exclusive etc, and he then acts surprised because as her boyfriend she assumed he'd be her date to something or fetch her from the hospital and gets "but we're just casual" so it can't burt to clarify. A casual and jokey comment in passing, or next time you bump into someone make sure to say "this is my boyfriend mark" might be the best way?

Lots to unpack here.

1. If you are exclusive, as others have said, surely that means you're in a relationship already?
2. Have you actually had a conversation about being exclusive, or did you both just note you weren't dating anyone else at the time of your first date? I don't believe these are the same thing.
3. Why are you dropping hints and giving him all the agency? It's 2024! Bring it up with him directly if it's that important to you.

Eh??

To a rational person, it sounds like you're already together and no need to ask but as this is a man we're talking about you need to ask and get confirmation. Men seem to give all the actions and ten years in tell you they're ready to settle down and have met someone leaving you thinking you're the fool. Note this hasn't happened to me.

If he won't put a label on it, kick him to the kerb. Men who are keen make sure you know.

I suspect they're not famous they are just known in the local community and consider themselves local celebrities. I live in a town and I know what she means 😆

DH never ever asked me to be his girlfriend.We've been married 35 yrs
I suppose that back in the day(80s) if you were going on regular dates and not dating anyone else then you were girlfriend and boyfriend without asking the question.

I don't think DH asked me to be his girlfriend either. We met nearly 46 years ago and have been married for 43 of them.

I have seen posts where people don’t know who someone is replying to, and the ‘reply’ button just puts a post up. So people have been told to use the ‘quote’ button. Now I’m being told twice today not to. It is hard to keep up with all the rule changes! 😁

How are you not his girlfriend??

Jesus, I wouldn't have the patience for any of this. If you are in a place where you are looking to build a solid, lifelong relationship then it's best just to just ask if that's on his radar. Don't hang around hoping you can sneak it up on him without him realising. No wonder some women fire through all their fertile years playing this merry convoluted dance.

My boyfriend’s 10 year old daughter told him he needed to formally ask me to be his girlfriend and wrote a little speech on a post-it note for the ‘asking ceremony’.

We’d been referring to each other as boyfriend and girlfriend for a while but he was happy to humour her.

We’re mid 50’s.

I think that's changing a bit now as there seems to be now a thing called "situations hips". I don't think the Op is wrong to ask her bf to tell her where they stands. If they have been seeing each other exclusively for months they are boyfriend and girlfriend really, but if he is avoiding calling her that it's weird. There is no evidence that is the case he quite likely happily thinks of her as his GF but it doesn't hurt to check because if he doesn't that's a red flag.
Op - when he introduces you to people he k ows how does he do so? Does he say "and this is my girlfriend X?"

Only the worst kind of man would expect to be shagging anyone he fancied while seeing you very regularly over a protracted timescale. It's only a 'thing' to officially ask you to be their girlfriend with losers.

I read the ‘well known’ thing about his friends as being an oddly expressed way of saying that they are all close, tight-knit, know each other very well. Compared to her more disparate friendships.

I didn't say you did, and you know I didn't. You quoted my reply to another poster.

@Notamum12345577 you've quoted the whole OP.

There's literally no need to do this.

Is there a reason why you feel the need to make fun of OP?

Also confused about his mates being well known. Are they famous? Or do they have a reputation locally?

Ok, so show me where I said any of those things?

Can you find where I said that? No – because I didn't.

Calling OP 6yrs old and another 10yrs old, ridiculing 'instagram official' when OP didn't mention it, calling her a bored teenager from reddit, using laughing emojis, telling her to play kiss chase and catch him.

All designed to ridicule the way she feels. Nasty and bloody unnecessarily when a woman has come on here, in no offensive or rude way whatsoever, to talk about her feelings.

This post has just made me realise that our neighbours have never asked us to be their neighbours.

I'm a bit worried now in case we aren't really neighbours after all and we will have to move.

The thing is, money is a bit tight at the moment and so it's the last thing we would want to do, especially as we paid for a new fence between us and the 'so called neighbours'. 😰

I'm really confused. I didn't know someone had to ask you to be their girlfriend. Is that a thing?? Surely you just are his girlfriend?