At the beginning of most romantic relationships, it’s easy to get caught up in the newness of it and want to spend every free minute you have together with your partner. This might be great for deepening your bond with your new beau, but it could be weakening your relationships with other friends and family in your life.
Finding the balance between hanging out with your romantic partner and your family and friends isn’t always easy. But it’s important as it can help you create stronger relationships with the people around you.
So how can you balance spending quality time with your romantic partner and your friends?
To help find what works best for you, here are a few tips to help you along the way.
Put yourself in the other person’s shoes
Building an understanding of what the other person feels is important in any relationship. By putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, you practise or learn to keep an open mind. It also helps you to understand a friend’s or partner’s reaction, when and if you haven’t been able to see them as much as you’d hoped when in you’re new relationship.
Learning to put yourself in someone else’s shoes will help you balance friends and your relationship, but it will also provide you with an opportunity of seeing another’s perspective.
Be considerate
Don’t expect that your friends will be free on exactly those weeknights or weekends when you can’t see your partner. In other words, be considerate of other people’s schedules. Work with each other by finding a middle ground of when and where you’re free to meet up.
Whether with your partner or with friends, be considerate of each other’s lives and plans.
Make plans and stick to them
Making plans with someone and sticking to the agreed time and date is an additional part of being considerate. Sometimes you have no option but to cancel last minute and that’s totally ok.
However, when you’ve made plans with your friends or your partner, make them the priority for that time. For example, one week you might choose to make your partner a priority and the next a particular friendship group.
No one is perfect
Juggling your time isn’t always easy and remember that you can’t always get it right for everyone. You’ll make mistakes as you would in any relationship. If you’ve accidentally double-booked yourself, be honest with the person who you won’t be able to meet up with. Explain the situation and suggest another time to catch up.
Telling the truth, as well as being understanding when a similar situation happens to you, creates a great foundation for any relationship in your life.
Although these are no magic formulas for you to find the ultimate way to balance friends and a new relationship, you may find that these useful tips help you deepen the existing relationships and allow your friendships and romantic partnership to thrive without neglecting one for the other.
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