7 Reasons Women Still Want the Relationship Label

7 Reasons Women Still Want the Relationship Label ©iStock/teksomolika

With all the confusion and blurred lines of modern dating, knowing whether someone is serious about dating you or not can get very tricky. That’s what a relationship label is for. Unlike in the past, the ways of courting a woman have become somewhat null and void for men. We skip out on dinner and go straight to drinks and hook up without knowing the other person’s last name. Then, all of a sudden we’re stuck in this gray area of not knowing exactly how to refer to this guy. As modern as we’d like to be, it’s also nice to know where we stand when becoming involved with a man. This is why women still want the relationship label:

  1. To know if we’re wasting our time or not. If we’re investing our time and energy in you, we want to know if it’s all worth it. The worst feeling is to have wasted all of our efforts on someone who didn’t feel the same way. Do us a favor and tell us whether or not this thing is serious. If not, we’ll gladly move on.
  2. To make sure he’s committed. These days, it’s hard to tell how committed a guy is. Yes, he’s spending time with you, hooking up with you, and has met all of your friends, but these checklist items no longer give you a sense of whether he’s serious about calling you his girlfriend or not. As women, we are careful about bringing up “the talk” too soon, but how long must we wait until we get an answer out of him? It’s better to know sooner than later and save yourself the heartache of knowing he was never going to commit.
  3. To keep the other creeps away. Let’s face it, getting hit on when we’re not in the mood can get very old very quickly. After the number of bad first dates we’ve gone on to finally get to you, we want to finally be able to say that we are off the market. We’ve dealt with enough creeps, so please let us know so that we can openly tell them that we have a boyfriend.
  4. To tell our friends that he’s not just “some guy we’re seeing”. Eventually, it gets to a point where our friends won’t stop nagging us and asking what the deal is with this guy. If you’ve been single for a while, it can get annoying to refer to the current guy as just “some guy we’re seeing”. We want to know that he’s more than that and so do our friends.
  5. To put our minds at ease. Ever hear the saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”? Well, the same goes for putting your heart on the line for a guy. It’s a scary feeling to completely let down your guard and put all of your faith and trust in one person. We want the relationship label to avoid the questions of “What are we?” and “Where is this going?” We don’t want to be worrying as to whether or not he’s seeing another girl (or two) on the side.
  6. To stick to tradition. Call me old-fashioned, but the boyfriend and girlfriend titles are a pretty big deal. It may seem juvenile, but I miss the days when a guy would actually ask you to be his girlfriend. It’s just so much more comforting to get that out of the way rather than have to drag it out of him.
  7. To feel special. Sometimes, we just want to hear him say the words, “This is my girlfriend”, when being introduced to his friends, family, co-workers, etc. There’s a certain level of excitement that comes with knowing you’re his. Again, this may sound a bit sappy it feels good to be someone’s someone. You also want to know that you’re not just some other girl that he’ll forget about in a few months.
Lindsey is a Digital Advertising Professional and Freelance Writer based in New York City. In her spare time, she enjoys running, traveling, and drinking ridiculous amounts of coffee. Follow her on Twitter @lindseyruns
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