Dating While Social Distancing: How to Maintain a Healthy (and Fun) Relationship

By: Tricia Ingram Williams, Training Specialist

Let’s admit it; this whole social distancing thing can be a little stressful. There’s school-work to do, siblings and parents to tolerate at all hours of the day, and friendships to maintain. On top of all of that, some teenagers are also trying to continue a relationship with their significant other.

Dating is hard enough when you see your significant other (SO) at school 5-days a week. How the heck are teens supposed to keep their relationship happy and healthy when they can’t even meet up with their partner in person?

Below are five tips to help you maintain a healthy relationship with your SO while social distancing (and even a few social distancing date ideas).

Set boundaries. Since most of us are stuck at home right now, we’re spending more time than ever on our phones and other devices. This makes it tempting to text your romantic interest at all hours of the day (and night). But it’s important to spend time away from all those screens. Set boundaries with your partner about how often you’ll be in communication, so that you have plenty of time to focus on your school-work, exercise outside, spend quality time with your family, and get plenty of rest.

Respect boundaries. If your SO sets boundaries about how often they’d like to talk, be sure to respect those! You can’t expect your partner to always respond to your text immediately, even if they did just post on Snapchat.

Have a robust support system. Quick! Write a list of 5 people that you enjoy talking to. This list could include your best friend, a parent or other family member, a teacher; whoever you feel like you can rely on and trust. Now make it a goal to reach out to each of these people at least once this week. Sometimes we can rely too much on our significant other to be our best friend, romantic interest, therapist, and comedian all in one! This can put too much pressure on one person, and that’s not fair. Instead, it’s important to have a handful of people in our life that we can talk to about significant things, especially during stressful times (like a global pandemic).

Make informed choices about virtual sexual behavior. Since you can’t be with your boyfriend or girlfriend in person, you might want to be sexual in socially distant ways. While sexuality is nothing to be ashamed of, it’s important to learn about the potential positives and negatives of virtual sexual behavior (like sexting). For more information on sexting and its potential legal ramifications, check out Eyes Open Iowa’s blog post, “New Rules of the Digital Age - Sexting.”

Keep social distancing. The longer this pandemic goes on, the more likely it is that you will begin to feel “quarantine fatigue.” You may have noticed that your determination to maintain social distancing has waned in the past week or two, and you may be tempted to meet up with your SO in person. But it is so important that you continue to social distance, wear a mask in public, and stay home when possible. If you don’t want to get sick and you don’t want your SO to get sick, be sure to keep social distancing!

Even though social distancing means that you can’t be with you partner in person, it’s doesn’t mean that you can’t have some awesome date nights! Here are a few social distancing date ideas:

• Pick out a recipe and cook the same meal from your respective kitchens while FaceTiming. You could even make it a competition (who’s meal looks the best at the end)! Then sit down and enjoy the fruits of your labor

. • Use Netflix Party (or a similar website) to watch a show or movie together and chat throughout.

• Have a scavenger hunt for the most random objects you can find in your house. Set a time limit, and when the time is up show each other what you were able to find!

What other social distancing date ideas do you have? Comment below to let us know!