By Dr. Jane Greer
Actress Ariel Winter revealed that she’s moved in with her boyfriend, Levi Meaden, after just several months of being together. While this is an exciting next step in the relationship, it raises the question of if it is ever too soon to move in with your significant other.
Is it how long you’ve been together, or the quality of the time you have shared that determines when the time to move in with your partner is right? Check out my relationship advice.
In today’s age of Skype, Facetime, and Google Hangouts people can almost be with each other all the time, texting or even Skyping in the middle of the night. When you are in love and spending all your time with your partner, it feels logical to want to take that next step and live with them. If your lives have become entwined, you may feel your relationship is resilient enough to deal with the ins and outs of joint living. Others, though, find that marking the passage of time as a couple helps give them security that the relationship is solid before feeling ready to consider moving in with their significant other. You are already sharing your heart, but are you ready to share your home?
Related Link:Â New Celebrity Couple Ariel Winter & Boyfriend Levi Meaden Make Red Carpet Debut
The most important thing is to be aware of the responsibilities that come with making a home together, and knowing if you have a deep enough foundation to work through it all as a team. It becomes about more than just the love you share and begins to include housework, the bills, child and or pet care, the actual square footage, who gets more closet space, food shopping, cooking, and whatever else goes along with cohabitating. Much of that requires clear communication about what you both need for yourselves and expect from each other, and most important, the compromise it takes to accomplish it. If you are ready to share the space and everything that comes with it, that is the first step in knowing you might be ready. Another thing to consider is how involved you have become in each other’s lives. Do you spend most of your time together, including each other when making plans with family and friends? Are you basically doing everything as a pair anyway? If so, that is another indication that you might be in a good position to take that next step. Another clue that you might be heading down this road is if you are already pretty much living together at one location, with a lot of your stuff still at your own place and really being inconvenienced because you don’t have what you need a lot of the time. In that case, making the decision to consolidate and be in one house or apartment becomes the practical and considerate thing to do.
Related Link: Celebrity Couple News: Ariel Winter Reveals She’s Living with Boyfriend Levi Meaden
On the other hand, if it seems like a sacrifice or an effort to make room for your partner, if you feel they are encroaching on your personal space, and or if you feel that your partner is reluctant and unwilling to accommodate your needs, then it might be worth taking some extra time to see where your relationship stands. Similarly, if you worry about losing personal time with your family and friends, about potentially now having to be accountable to your partner for your whereabouts, this is another red flag that you might not be quite ready. Finally, if your relationship has not been stable and you’ve had a breakup along the way, there is no need to rush into anything. You might stand a better chance of going the long haul if you make sure you have the important tools in place to tackle the daily challenges of living together.
Ultimately it is up to you to sort out where you stand with all of these issues, and determine when making that big decision suits both of you. There is no right or wrong time, it just depends on your own personal situation. It seems Ariel and Levi are ready, so here’s to luck and happiness ahead for them.
Please tune in to the Doctor on Call radio hour on HealthyLife.net every Tuesday at 2 PM EST, 11 AM PST. First and third Tuesdays are Shrink Wrap on Call, second Tuesdays are HuffPost on Call, and the last Tuesday of the month is Let’s Talk Sex! Email your questions dealing with relationships, intimacy, family, and friendships to Dr. Greer at askdrjane@drjanegreer.com. Connect with Dr. Jane Greer on Facebook, at www.facebook.com/DrJaneGreer, and be sure to follow @DrJaneGreer on Twitter for her latest insights on love, relationships, sex, and intimacy. For more on Dr. Greer, visit http://www.drjanegreer.com.
