When you’ve got a new situationship, it’s hard to know when to lock things down and break out the much-anticipated ‘L word’.
You don’t want to say it before you’re pretty sure the other person feels the same way in case you embarrass yourself or push the other person away.
So, how long does it take the average person to say ‘I love you’? According to Ann Summers, it’s within two months of meeting someone.
The lingerie and sex toy retailer has also found that 49% of 16-24-year-olds believe you should only date one person at a time and almost half (49%) of all Brits have lost hope of meeting someone organically.
You might wonder, ‘How do I know if I’m really in love?’ Sometimes you can confuse love with lust and then a month down the line you’re finding this person is pretty annoying, actually.
How to know when you’re in love according to the experts at Ann Summers:
- You think about them ALL. THE. TIME
- They make you feel safe and like you can be 100% comfortable and yourself around them
- Life’s just so much more exciting when you’re with them
- There’s sexual passion and energy, but also space for kindness and support
- You just feel so full of all the happy feels
- You’re able to experience adversity together and come through the other side stronger than ever. Covid couples know this one well
- You love how they smell. Okay, a bit of a weird one, but research shows that pheromones — chemicals that control how each individual smells naturally — have a lot to do with attraction
- You want to know everything about them, from their birth chart to their love language, to how they embarrassed themselves during that school play.
There aren’t any rules on when you can profess your love for each other — do what feels right for you.
But for the majority of us, two months seems to be the average. Which, spookily enough, is the exact length of a series of Love Island. Are we being influenced by what we’re watching on screen? Answers on a postcard!