Friends with benefits. No strings attached. A summer or fall, or spring, or winter fling. For ages, casual daters have coined and used labels like these to describe their, well, otherwise unlabeled relationships.
But no term has stuck around quite like the infamous situationship. While some people might fear or bemoan ending up in a situationship, the dynamic itself isn't an inherently bad or unhealthy one. A situationship can look like many things in practice, but it's often a catch-all word to describe someone who's not quite a first date, friend, or one-time hookup, but not a partner, either.
Situationships usually exist before or independently of the DTR defining the relationship conversation, and as such, can be a temporary relationship stage , adds Saba Harouni Lurie, LMFT, a licensed marriage and family therapist and owner of Take Root Therapy in Los Angeles. While this dating dynamic may be fleeting, it does happen frequently.
In fact, half of Americans age 18 to 34 have been in a situationship, according to a YouGov poll. They've become increasingly popular amid the normalcy of online dating, says Christie Tcharkhoutian Kederian, PhD, LMFT, a relationship expert and former celebrity matchmaker at eHarmony.
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But while situationships can be cast in a negative light, they can also be fun, sexually satisfying, and even liberating. Ahead, relationship experts explain what it means to be in a situationship and what to do if you find yourself in a relationship that has yet to be defined.
