The fairytale beginning, honeymoon period and when you know your relationship will last - what is too soon for what?
A new relationship usually goes through different stages, and these initial stages are the one that frequently turn out to be the most passionate, beautiful and world changing. These extreme feelings are related to physical, emotional and mental connection.
The fairytale beginning is pretty much what many girls dream about, a perfect first encounter in where you meet your "prince charming". Here you may feel your whole world stops, you may want to dissimulate you are nervous, but your heart beats the fastest it has never beat before. That fairy tale beginning is different for each person, a casual encounter in the beach, in the park, in a dancing club, it depends on what you have previously thought or imagined, but the deal is, it will be harder for you to have your fairy tale beginning, if you are expecting a prince in a horse coming to rescue you in your apartment’s balcony! What matters the most is typically the first encounter, as it is the one we remember the most and the one that makes the next encounter possible or impossible, as usually it is kind of hard to overcome a "bad" first impression.
The honeymoon stage is the one where everything is "just perfect" you don't know or don't want to see your “prince or princess “is a human being! This is the stage where nothing bothers you; you want to know how perfect can someone be? Ask the person who is in love from him/her! In this stage is unlikely to have a fight; messages, calls and special dates are the rule, not the exception, and usually your partner is the most important person for you in the world. I don't want to break your bubble, but these intense stages are a trick from nature to make us make babies, to create little new humans, when this happens, our natural instincts make us focus on supporting and protecting this new life; that is the main purpose of this stage. What happens nowadays is that we have birth control, and this instinctive process, does not happen. In today's society most men and women are focused on other aspects as personal and professional development delaying parenthood or even completely avoiding it.
This doesn't mean adults don't want a companion, this means they can decide the course of their life differently. There are also some other cultural values that may affect relationships, because in the past in most societies marriage was a must! And this must, seems like it has disappeared for many. You may or may not accept or consider, this two elements as part of the factors that in a way or another help or motivate a couple to work on their relationship. Why? For many people having these additional bonds help them or may make them work on their relationship. First no one likes to accept they have failed and second when there are kids in the relationship most people desire to give their children the best family environment possible.
Don't get it wrong, these are not the only factors that have influence in developing a long term relation, but they are pretty common.
Going on, how can you know your relationship will last? You may take into consideration these elements have you overcome a "crisis" together? This means a personal, familiar and especially a relationship crisis together? Why should you take this question as a reference, because when everything is perfect it is quite easy to stay together, in the “perfect” initial stages there is nothing wrong, there are no reasons to be apart; but as soon as this stages come to an end is when you have to face the “little” details, and these little things may become huge!
Have you been able to overcome and work on your differences? You could say that, this is the second main questions. In the first two stages happiness is mostly what holds and gathers your relationship, but when the time runs, the relationship changes, the body chemical reactions change too, and this makes the perfection veil around your partner disappear. Sometimes the routine and the time pass the bill, and things that didn’t use to matter are horribly highlighted, do you want examples? The cleaning habits, the entertainment preferences, the hobbies, work, family and many more of elements that create our daily life have grown in the most surprising ways, interfering with that initial happiness you both used to enjoy.
Taking again the question, how can you know your relationship will last? Identify if you are BOTH working to improve those deal breaking elements. Are you both aware that to make your relationship last you need to work on it? If not, be it. Create a stable and happy couple is not matter of luck, it is matter of work. This doesn’t mean you have to take your relation as a job, but you have to put an effort on it, to remain happy and together. Do you want simple examples? If you love videogames but your partner doesn’t, reduce the time you spend in them and use it to share something you both like; another simple thing, if you are the one that comes home first from work, start preparing dinner or help with the dishes; if you know your partner enjoys a “quickie” in the mornings leave most things ready at night so you can both share that special time together.
Now thinking on the last question, what is too soon for what? Depends on what do you want to do or ask: meting his/her family, moving together, getting married, babies and many more are basic questions one day a couple will have to discuss. I won’t lie these are not easy topics to talk about; the important thing is to know your partner, get to really know his/her real reactions thoughts and dreams. it may be useful also to get familiar with his/her family story, sometimes people unconsciously take their parents as a positive or negative reference, and this may let you know what does your partner expect or would like to do. Life is always changing, and couples are too, enjoy each moment, try to be happy and make your partner happy the time is the only that will tell if it will last or not, mean while, always put your best effort.