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Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

How fast is too fast in a new relationship mid-30s?

35 replies

BackAgain1 · 03/12/2025 19:45

Met someone I really could see a future with after many years of basically being single/ not finding someone I could see long-term with. We are both mid 30s, and we both have had multiple long-term relationships. Both well set-up: good jobs, each own property and a car etc.

I think we are both in a place that if we are sure about each other we will move quite fast, as we know what we want, have learnt a lot from previous relationships, and know how to communicate well due to all of that learning.

I can envisage us moving quite fast, but I wonder how fast is too fast when we are this age. I feel so much clearer about who and what I want after my past - which is why I’ve taken so many years since being single to be willing to commit to someone new, I really wanted to be sure - and I think he is the same. So the question is how fast is too fast? I mean in all things: how much time we spend together, moving in together (I think I’d probably have to move in with him and rent out my place), considering kids (I’ll be 36 next year, we both want kids). I’m not trying to move anything fast right now, just interested in thoughts!

OP posts:
Unexpectedlysinglemum · 03/12/2025 21:23

Make sure you see how he responds to you saying no and how he treats you when you’re sick etc first, I didnt test these things and look at my username (I would have written an identical post when I met him at 34 too)

Justthetonicandgin · 03/12/2025 21:23

My parents met, married and my DM pregnant all within 6 months. Married for 50 years when my dad died. Was it always easy, I don’t think so, but shared values make you strong.

I knew my DH was ‘the one’ after 3 dates. Together for 27 years now.

Good luck, enjoy!

Topjoe19 · 03/12/2025 21:27

I just knew from early days with my now DH that it was for keeps. There was no game playing, he rang/text when he said he would, never let me down or messed me about. Peas in a pod from day one. Moved in, got married & pregnant within 3 years of meeting. Good luck, I hope it works out for you.

BackAgain1 · 03/12/2025 21:29

Unexpectedlysinglemum · 03/12/2025 21:23

Make sure you see how he responds to you saying no and how he treats you when you’re sick etc first, I didnt test these things and look at my username (I would have written an identical post when I met him at 34 too)

Sorry this happened to you :(! Both have been tested- he’s offered to help me twice when I was ill, and he’s also been very non-pushy about me needing to wait to confirm plans/changing plans etc. I’m probably the more controlling one really

OP posts:
NewYorkNewYork24 · 03/12/2025 21:37

I met my other half about 15 months ago, I was 35, he’s 34. felt very similar to you, comfy with each other quickly, felt like it could go the distance. We’ve both been married before so I think that’s played a factor in how fast we move.
said I love you after about 9 months, at the 11 month mark we’ve started staying at each others houses a lot more. Alternating every other week whose house we’re at, a bit of a pain but we both own a house so and I feel like neither of us are ready to sell up just yet.
Both want kids too. I feel like I’m a years time we’ll be ready to move in fully.
don’t rush things, it will move at the pace it’s meant too.

LondonMummer · 03/12/2025 21:49

I was 36 when I met my husband. We were married with two children (not twins) almost exactly three years later.

Basically we got married 14 months after we met, I fell pregnant just after getting back from honeymoon, pregnant again 4 months after our first son was born so a 13 month age gap between our children. Together now for 18 years.

MaxTalk · 03/12/2025 21:59

6 weeks?! I have food in my fridge for longer than that... :)

UpDownAllAround1 · 04/12/2025 05:22

This all sounds very unromantic. Get to Christmas first

brbjusthavingabreakdown · 04/12/2025 07:17

i met my partner at 36 had our baby at 37 & we are getting married next year il b 38 x

gannett · 04/12/2025 07:28

I moved in with DP after two years, and that felt a bit early to me - the driving force behind that was the London housing market rather than anything romantic. If I'm being honest, in my head I didn't properly commit to him until after about four years.

It wasn't just about making sure he was a good man who ticked all the right boxes - I was sure of that quite early on - but making sure that I, a commitment-phobe throughout my 20s, wasn't going to get bored or feel stifled in a relationship. The idea of committing to anything for the rest of my life was terrifying and it took me nearly half a decade to process that.

I didn't want kids though, which gave me a lot of leeway to do all of this on my own timescale and to know that extraneous factors weren't clouding my judgment. In my late 30s, some of my friends moved very, very fast because they wanted kids (which I thought was a bad idea at the time, and those are now the relationships on the thinnest ice in my social circle).

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