When do you change labels?

[Globules]

Yet again, I've seen a poster "correct" the OP, telling them they can't have a partner after 6 months of seeing them.

Well, when does someone become a partner?

What determines assigning this label over boyfriend/girlfriend/seeing someone? And who gets to say when that label is given?

Not sure why that person felt the need to comment on how someone refers to their partner?!
I sometimes call my boyfriend my partner as we’ve been together 5 years, plus he’s almost 50 so it feels a bit weird saying boyfriend but partner seems so formal lol

To me personally “partner” implies a long term relationship, someone you share your life with, it reflects a serious long term commitment.

I wouldn’t use that word to describe someone I’ve been seeing for 6 months.

I'd refer to someone as a partner if I lived with them but that's just my opinion. Weird when someone says partner after a few months

I literally hate when someone writes in looking for advice about a relationship and people jump down their throat for using the word partner like what is the need!
It’s happened me on here where people have said “that’s not your partner, you’re only with them a year” about my FEMALE partner who I choose to call my partner because that is what she is 🙄🙄🙄
honestly Mumsnet is full of the worst people

People do that to be supercilious and distract from the thread. It makes no difference to the topic at hand in most cases.

Partner is perfectly appropriate when referring to someone you're seeing when boyfriend or girlfriend feels too teenage (fine if it doesn't but I wouldn't use it now. 'Guy I'm seeing' graduated straight to 'partner').

There isn't a rule for this stage of a relationship. Fiancé/e means engaged. Husband or wife means married. Partner infers something more serious than casually dating but there are no official criteria to fulfil before one may use it such as living arrangements, length of union etc.

I started referring to my boyfriend as my partner when we had a child together….
Maybe there’s some subconscious stigma around being unmarried even though it never has bothered me before?!

Partner is a shortening of life partner where I am and means just that. A stable, long term close comitted romantic relationship that the ones in it expect to last for a lifetime.

Dating someone for a few months does not make a partner. I find people who call their short term romantic interests partners are trying to push the relationship to be more than it is or rush a relationship.

I use partner, I have since we first started dating. Anybody who is trying to police the word likely has serious issues around relationships and it's a them problem. Just keep saying it, it doesn't matter if they like it or not. I also use it because it's gender neutral (I'm bi but in a straight relationship) and normalising the term is beneficial to people in gay relationships who want speak about their home life without having to out themselves.