Can anyone help me work out relationship statuses of 2022

[Shinydiscoballs1]

What's the difference between seeing someone, dating someone, boyfriend and girlfriend ?
This is all new to me!!
Do you have a chat before you become girlfriend and boyfriend ?
Would dating imply that they may be seeing others?
What about exclusively dating ?
Help!!

Ridiculous isn't it @Shinydiscoballs1

What utter nonsense we now have to put up with.

As I understand it, when the other party asks you to become boyf/girlfriend then that's the point you're in a relationship (?) and you should have had the 'exclusivity' talk just to make sure.

I know I don't remember all these labels 15 years ago before I was married!! I think basically once you were seeing and sleeping with someone you were bf/gf and exclusive. I don't remember all the casual ways back then.
Well I've been seeing a guy a few weeks now and I've already said I don't want to see anyone else as I like him and he said the same thing so what are we??

There's degrees of relationships...

It starts with 'speaking to each other' then something else then 'seeing each other' then in a relationship maybe?

@pastypirate

There's degrees of relationships...

It starts with 'speaking to each other' then something else then 'seeing each other' then in a relationship maybe?

Yes this. Seeing each other is the very first stages and I class it as the same as dating. Relationship is when both parties agree to be exclusive and thats boyfriend/girlfriend etc. Sleeping with each other can be at any stage and doesn't mean exclusivity

Just to confuse matters my goddaughter and her friends who are 20 says "talking to each other" when they are in fact sleeping with each other 🤷🏼‍♀️. When I was about 4 weeks in to my relationship I did ask "are we exclusive?" Me and DP are both in our 40s. I knew the answer but still asked....

I feel very lucky that DP and I just met and realised we wanted each other and nobody else. There wasn't any discussion of exclusivity, etc. We just met and knew.

These are my thoughts from reading this forum.

I think there are early stages of dating where there may be other people.

Then an ‘exclusivity’ chat. This doesn’t mean you have a label just that you are having fun with each other.

Then at a later date there may be a ‘where are we at’ conversation that defines you as boyfriend / girlfriend.

This is certainly the pattern that happened to me. There was also a hypothetical ‘what are you looking for in a relationship?’ chat which outlined that i never wanted to be financially tied to another man or married but would consider living with someone.

It sounds awful compared to my youth where I snogged someone and he was my boyfriend but from a very early stage me and my partner knew what we wanted from a relationship and then had fun working out if we were the right people for each other. It’s been almost three years now and we’ve taken things slow and I probably do have better, more open communication with him than with any of my previous boyfriends