The Science of Mating

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The eight-week dating rule says that by that by then a person dating you knows their intentions with you.

If you two haven't had The Talk about going exclusive by then, chances are against it ever happening.

That person may not see you as significant-other material or worry enough about losing you to someone else.

Eight weeks is a good time to have The Talk: in order to save you time and effort spent on the wrong person.

So, it's been 80,639 minutes since the two of you started dating. But there hasn't yet been any commitment to exclusivity. Does that mean that it's time to move on unless something happens to change in the 80,640th minute?

The so called "eight-week dating rule" popularized on social media does say that by two months of regularly seeing someone, a person generally knows their longer term intentions. And if the two of your haven't yet had The Talk about going exclusive and calling each other, you know, boyfriend, girlfriend, partner, significant other, one-and-only snookums, or something like that, then it ain't ever going to happen.

Of course, as with any dating rule, the deadline is not hard and fast like the due date for your taxes. It's not as if something magical happens between seven and nine weeks. Instead, it's a rough milestone—a check-in point.

It is good to have some kind of marker and check-in time when in dating limboland. Otherwise, the risk is that the uncertainty can drag on and on to an ultimately disappointing end,........

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