Casual relationships are pretty tricky to define in a couple of sentences. They’re essentially one-on-one relationships with individuals that really enjoy spending time with one another, but aren’t looking for commitments of any kind. Think of dating, but without any of the romance. Casual relationships may or may not involve sexual activity, too.
What makes casual relationships tricky is being able to set one up right with someone else. You can’t just go, “Yeah let’s go to the movies and have sex every Saturday,” and call it a day. Communication and honesty are key points to consider in these relationships, as you’ll find out in this blog.
With that out of the way, here’s how you can start your own casual relationship and enjoy someone else’s company without the commitment attached to it.
1. Find the right person
You know the saying – it takes two to tango. You’ll obviously need someone who’s willing to engage in a casual relationship with you. Usually, though, you don’t actively look for someone to start a casual relationship with.
A lot of the time, you find yourself liking a person a lot more than you normally would, but you aren’t looking for a committed relationship with them. These are the people you’d want to approach for casual relationships. Of course, they’ll need to accept your confession to wanting a casual relationship, so be sure to let them know as soon as you can to set things straight from the get-go.
2. Decide whether or not to publicize your relationship
While it’s good to let your friends know about your personal lives, it’s no stretch to say that not everybody has a positive view of casual relationships. The norm of committed relationships has made it difficult for people to accept the idea of casual dating. And, if you and your partner have mutual friends, there’s a good chance that things can get really messy really quick once they learn about your relationship. Be sure to determine whether or not you should make your casual relationship public, and when to do so.
3. Plan for everything (and I mean everything) beforehand
It’s time to unlock your inner strategist and plan ahead with your partner. Casual relationships don’t have the same, unspoken ground rules of typical relationships, so you’ll have to define them on your own terms together. There are a few things to consider, but the main factors to take note of is your methods of communication, the frequency of your dates, and how to end (or evolve) your relationship.
So, for example, you can agree that you and your partner should communicate exclusively via Messenger or Twitter DMs. You can set your dates to happen once a week during Saturday evenings. And, if one person develops a romantic interest for another, you can either a.) end the relationship right there if the feeling isn’t mutual, or b.) shift the relationship to an official, committed one if the feeling is mutual.
