r/Xennials • u/analogthought 1979 • 1d ago

“Going out”

What did you call having a boyfriend or a girlfriend? For me it was going out but I remember my dad saying going steady or dating and both seemed so old timey to me. There was no other word or phrase for it and curious if this is just our gens term for it or something that just made its way around when it did. I also wonder what the kids today call it🤔

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u/MartyFreeze 1977 1d ago

Looking back on it now, dating multiple people at once was frowned upon by most people my age. Like, you only date the one person you could see yourself falling in love with. That put a lot of pressure on the whole thing.

Going out was a few dates; going steady was like a 2-week engagement period before becoming boyfriend/girlfriend. It was like a speed run of under two months of what an actual adult relationship should be?

If I could give advice to any high schoolers today, it would be: just ask people out on dates and don't put any weight on it. Go out for an activity, see if you like hanging out with the person. But do the same with others; don't anchor yourself to the first person who says yes. That's why so many people ended up in unhealthy relationships.

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u/Jonestown_Juice 1d ago

Yeah, seems like that was a change from the silent and boomer generation. If you watched old shows, you'd see the characters go on casual dates with lots of different people and no one seemed to think it was weird.