At what point would you consider a long term couple essentially married without being actually married?
7+ years and I wouldn't judge you for calling your partner your husband/wife even if there isn't paperwork.
Is your partner very firmly your family, whether the law agrees or not? Are they someone that you can trust implicitly, who is always on your side (and vice versa)? Do you enjoy spending time with them, and have similar values? Are you past the honeymoon stage? Congrats, you're a mature couple.
The only thing stopping me from proposing to my partner of 4 years is that we live with his parents. I don't wanna get engaged without being to set a wedding date, or be married and living with my partner's parents. The biggest issue with this plan is that I don't have any idea when we'll get our own place, lol -- certainly not in the foreseeable future.
Been with my partner for 10 years. We weren't "living together" but he lives 5 mins from me and I spent the evening and overnight with him everyday for maybe 8-9 of those years. We have 2 kids together and have been officially living together in our own space for 2.5 years.
After about 3-5 years we considered ourselves basically married, and he calls me his wife to his coworkers and friends.
Been with mine for 21 years ..not married..but I call her my wife...she calls me her husband...I'm all good with that
10 years or children.
Not necessarily when the pregnancy is early on in the relationship but if the relationship is already fairly committed then children cement it.
I think it depends on how old you are when you got together. I’m in grad school so I’m around several couples that have been together 6-7 years but literally the entirety of that time they’ve been students, supported by their parents, without real-world jobs/responsibilities. They seem much less like married couples than others I know that were older when they got together but have only been together for 2-3 years. A grad school classmate recently casually mentioned she was thinking of breaking up with her boyfriend of 6 years as if it wasn’t a big deal which blew my mind
Have a kid together. Nobody will question whether or not you’ve gotten married
Like 3 months
5 years with no breakups