What constitutes a "Serious" relationship to you?

"What constitutes a "Serious" relationship to you?"

It seems like a such a simple question but it is sooooooo relative.

Last weekend I was at a Bon Fire and the question came up. To my astonishment I had been in several serious relationships according to my friends score card but only been in one or two by mine.

We were a group of late 20's early 30's and the average amount of relationships was 2 and the average length where it became serious was 3-6 months.

Shocked me since I'm 30 and I've been in 4 or 5 relationships greater than that length but only considered one of them very serious.

This is an interesting question. There are two perspectives, one as an observer of a relationship, the other as someone actually in one.

When watching my friends, I see a serious relationship when they've been together for ~6 months, appear to show up to most group events and friend events as a couple, and leave as one too. When they're not together and you ask "Hey, where is *name tonight?" They know where the person is and why they couldn't come out.

When in one, for me it becomes serious not when the "I love you" has been said, but when we talk about taking the next real step together, ie meeting the parents, talking about moving in together, etc. If my friends were asked, they'd probably say I've been in 4, but in my books, I've been in 2.

Yeah see thats interesting to me. With me seriousness isn't a function of time and familiarity the way it is for most people. Its more about how many Life Scenario's have I seen her in and well did we handle them.

Serious is if you are sleeping together, are monogamous and do things as a couple...shit maybe that's not it either..lol. I was actually in 2 relationships that met that criteria and now I don't think they were really that serious b/c I was not in love and didn't see myself being with either of the forever.

My relationship now is very serious b/c we have a child together and we are pretty much like a married couple...just we aren't technically married and I have trouble fully committing...