Advice for long-distance relationship

[pen_and_poetry]

edited for privacy.

 

[trophy33]

So here is my question:
how much time do you need to date someone, to "know"?

Generally the answer is for about two years, minimum, but there is no maximum. You can discover even after 10 years that you did not know the person at all.

Is FaceTime enough to sum a mate up for a life commitment or do you really need a ton of in-person interaction?

If you want to base your life commitment on experience and knowledge of the other person, than no, online world is not enough.

However, there have been many arranged marriages in which people did not know each other at all and those marriages still lasted and worked in some way. So the answer probably depends on "what kind of marriage do you want".

Do you think that the timeframe for starting a family is a dealbreaker? It's causing me stress and pressuring me, but am I overreacting?

Its useful to have some timeframes and goals. They become stressful only when they are used as some kind of literal law or rule. If they remain flexible and open to changes, it should be fine, a direction.

There's no perfect relationship. I don't want to just "dump him" as social media will say because I think he's great, so I feel like I should stick out the unpleasant distance until we can close it, BUT am i wrong to feel like another year is too long?

One possible answer can be if one of you moved to the city where the other of you live. In this way you can see if you like it there and see each other often. If its really difficult for both of you to do (or none of you wants to leave the home place), then the long distance relationship may not a good idea in the first place.