How many relationships before spouse?

[Redguard]

My husband is the real deal, there really is no comparison to those two losers in my past.

Losers?

But Beth... I thought we'd gotten past our differences.

 

[Chan1976]

I went out on dates before DH, but they were all casual (for lack of a better word), and I had strict rules about physical contact (no kissing or anything beyond that). DH was my first serious relationship, and he was also the first guy I kissed.

 

[fuzzymel]

I had loads of casual relationships and one serious.

I was attracted to men with no future. Thankfully I saw sense and fell for my husband (someone I had actually known most of my life).

 

[£amb]

My husband was the only one I dated and ended up marrying the big lug...

I was never interested in boys. Believe me, I had my fair share of crushes, but had very low self esteem. Besides, I had two older sisters and watched them go through the emotional baggage of breaking up with their boyfriends. I knew I did not want that. I met my husband 2 weeks after my 17th birthday, and we knew we were going to stay together.

 

[Cygnus]

There was one silly thing that I don't count as a relationship because the guy was such a jerk.

My husband was my first serious relationship.

 

[alwaysyoung]

I had one other serious relationship before my husband.

 

[SweetBella]

I had a mix of serious and casual relationships beforehand

 

[Amélie Unbound]

I dated a lot when I was younger. There were 3 men I was serious about, but none of them were serious about me. Then after I gave my life to Jesus when I was 22, men just suddenly and mysteriously stopped being interested in me, until I met my husband. We got married when I was 31.

 

[BrBob]

OK, I'll be different. I wasn't saved when we got married. I had 60+ relationships, including one failed marriage before marrying my Liz 23 years ago. Of course I didn't sleep with all of them....

Life was different then, and I don't miss that lifestyle.

Bob
Spearfish, SD

 

[Cordy]

I had a couple serious and several casual. I don’t regret that I had them. There is one that was a waste of time, but the others were all generally nice experiences. They helped me learn about myself, what I like in a guy, and what I don’t. They were for most part based in really good friendship, even the serious ones, so there are a ton of wonderful friendship-type memories. I am still friends with some of them.

Although many of them are or will be wonderful husbands, none of them are as incredible as the man I married.

 

[Rebekka]

I dated one guy when I was 19, but very briefly, and I was never attracted to him so we didn't even kiss. Long, long years of solitude, nothing happened. Then at 27 I met my husband, I knew he was the one from the start, we got engaged pretty quickly. So for the record, I'll say just my husband, because the first thing doesn't really count, I didn't even have a crush on him.

 

[BarbBlessed]

I dated a lot in high school - I fell hard for David when I was only 14 though, so though I had plenty of boy friends I didn't really view any of them seriously, and backed off quickly if it appeared they were starting to get serious.

I couldn't just sit at home moping while I was waiting for him to notice me.

 

[invisiblebabe]

I had four or five serious relationships before him, one of them being an ex fiance. I also casually dated 10-15 other guys.

I'm interpreting 'serious' as committed and discussing the possibility of marriage. I'm interpreting 'casual' as going-out type of thing, with no exclusive commitments on either end.

 

[bluebug83]

Married my first and only I don't really feel like I missed out by not dating anyone else, since I am an overanalyzer and we dated for a long time (3 years) before getting married....so I really got to understand why we're a good match for each other.

He had 3 casual (high school) relationships before me, and two of those girls are now good friends of ours!

 

[Nobility]

Um. 3 casual and 3 serious before my husband.

And 4 of them would be considered hubbys friends.

 

[firestar]

Two what was I thinking
One fun summer romance type of thing
One semi serious

One real deal- my husband.

 

[WolfGate]

One serious relationship. Though I was young, it lasted from 8th grade through 2nd year of college. Thought we'd marry one day, but in the end drifted apart.

After that several casual relationships along with one short one where I fell head over heels in love but she didn't (oops).

I then had one with a "Fatal Attraction" woman that lasted about 9 months. Had to move away for the summer without letting anyone know where I was going to finally break that one.

Finally met my wife my last year of college. Been together almost 21 years now, married 18 of those. I'm glad all the drama of dating is gone.

 

[alabaster jar]

Dh is the sixth fellow for me.

 

[Assisi]

I went out on lots of dates with different boys, but it usually didn't take me very long to work out that I didn't want to end up married to them. There was one boy I 'stepped out with' for a bit longer (a couple of months), but at the end of those months I could see that he wasn't going to be my husband and we never discussed marriage. I met my husband at 18 and it didn't take me long to see that he met (and exceeded) all my criteria for a good husband.

The above makes me sound like I was very determined to get married, but I wasn't. I planned on meeting my husband in my late twenties and getting married at 30. I just didn't like having a boyfriend hanging around. Often they seemed to think that having asked me on a date entitled them: to know where I was all the time, to have a say in whether I was going to the party, to sit next to me every time we were out with friends. etc. I was an independent young woman who felt capable of deciding for herself what she would do on Friday night. My husband was less possessive as a boyfriend, but I also liked having him sit next to me sometimes when we were out with friends. And I still do...

I'm the first girl my husband ever went on a date with.
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