Did you grow up in a culture where young people fall in love and have sex, but dating is unheard of? (women, husband)

[NilaJones]

Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one here .

I now live in a culture where people date (not every couple, but some), so part of my reason for being here is to learn what that means.

[BirdieBelle]

How do they know they're in love?

[Ruth4Truth]

Well, hanging out with friends, and meeting and falling in love that way, has been one m.o. since sometime in the 60's. And if this happens in the context of people living together in a shared household, where to residents couple up, then that would describe the situation in the OP. I don't know if this still happens, but there was always a segment of the youth population that lived this way through most of the 2nd 1/2 of the 20th Century. I wouldn't say I "grew up" in it, but I experienced it.

[calipoppy]

Originally Posted by NilaJones

Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one here .

I know live in a culture where people date (not every couple, but some), so part of my reason for being here is to learn what that means.

Where do people not date in the US?

[Prince_Frog]

I live in an area where a whole bunch of babies are made from women who are super young, like 14 young. So there's definitely plenty of that culture happening here.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by calipoppy

Where do people not date in the US?

In the rare pockets of the US where the counter-culture hippie lifestyle is alive and well, for one example. But do we know for a fact that the OP grew up in the US?

[BirdieBelle]

Still trying to figure out how they fall in love without dating.

I guess it depends on the definition of "dating." They have to get to know each other to fall in love. So is it "hanging out"?

You're gonna need to be less vague.

[Ruth4Truth]

People meet and fall in love by hanging out with their social group, and doing group activities. Or by living in a shared household, where they interact every day. There may not be structured dates, but just time spent cooking together, listening to music, watching videos on the couch at night, going to the beach as a group, that sort of thing.

[Sonnenwende]

I have no idea.

I dated some men, but I never dated my husband per se. I knew him from teh interwebz, but there was absolutely no romantic interest until the day we met. 12 hours later, we were a couple.

[NilaJones]

Yeah, it was like what R4T describes.

Lots of time spent together, but not doing datelike stuff. Not going out to eat or to a movie. I only did that (dinner and a movie) once in my life, before I was 35, and that was with a guy who was from elsewhere. It was a novel experience for me .