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What to consider when your relationship gets more serious

BY READERS DIGEST

28th Apr 2022 Dating & Relationships

What to consider when your relationship gets more serious
When your relationship starts to get serious, this can be incredibly exciting, and before you know it, you might be considering a future with the person in question.
However, there are many elements that you need to consider as your relationship begins to develop, and here are just some of them.

The legalities

Whether you have decided to move in together or get married, you must think about the legal implications of your next move. Although thinking about the law and the possibility that your relationship might end in tragedy might not sound romantic, the more your lives begin to intertwine, the more you need to think about what happens if you separate or if one of you passes away. This is where family law solicitors come in, as a quick visit to them can allow you to make pre-nuptial and co-habitation agreements that can protect both of you in the future and can ensure that you are both happy with the decisions that you make.

Your family

Although your family should not have any say in who you decide to have a relationship with, as you grow closer, in most cases, your family will start to get involved to a limited degree, even if this is simply going round to their home for dinner or your family becoming your partner’s family. As such, you should make sure that you set boundaries with your family in terms of your relationship, that you talk to your family about how you feel and about where your relationship is at, and that you are on the same page as your partner when it comes to how much you want your families to be a part of your lives together.

Communication

It is likely that your relationship will not last or that you will become increasingly unhappy if you are not able to communicate with your partner as well as you should. As such, as your relationship gets serious, you need to work on your communication skills. For instance, you should ensure that you are clear with your partner, that you do not hide important information from them, and that you can talk about your feelings and how you view your relationship with them without any concerns about how they will react. This communication should be a two-way street, which means that you also need to be a good listener.

The next steps

There is no one way to have a serious relationship, and this may mean different things to different people as you approach the commitment phase of your relationship. As such, you should discuss with your partner what you want your next steps to be and go at your own pace when it comes to them. For instance, you might be ready to move in together but may be uncertain about whether you want to marry or have children. You might even have an emotionally deep relationship while living separately or even at a distance from each other.
Instead of following the steps that you believe that you need to take, you should consider what works for you and your partner.
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