by Bridget Webber

Created on: January 25, 2009

If you are looking for a serious relationship then you will find that being friends first, before dating, can save you a great deal of time and heartache. To begin with, the person that you choose to settle down with should end up being your best friend anyway. It makes sense to get to know an individual a little before running around on dates with them, and having to possibly discover after months that they have completely different values and goals in life to you.

You may of course meet the love of your life via dating before friendship. It can happen. But when it does it usually isn't the very first person that you date, or the second, or the third......you get the picture I'm sure. Basically, if you have plenty of free time, money for excursions galore and a heart that doesn't easily break then you don't need to worry about friendship before dating.

The most successful relationship that I ever had was with my best friend, who I am still married to today. If we hadn't had a firm friendship before dating then we may never have gone the distance. Friendship allows you to develop deep feelings that hold you together when times get rough, as well as helping you celebrate the good times together too.

That same friendship can then remain as a firm foundation to build a special relationship on. This keeps you strong as a couple and makes you more caring toward each other in a genuine way when you first begin to date properly.

There is never any reason to have to jump into dating. There is plenty of time to make friends and to see where the tide of life naturally takes you without pushing it in a direction it may not have gone in by itself.

Dating can feel very artificial, as well as nerve wracking, if you don't already know and like the other person yet. It can lead to all sorts of insecurities and unnecessary worries. But when you are friends already, becoming more can feel like a natural progression, rather than a desperate attempt to find something that may not be there.

Dating can also become a question and answer session, where each of you has an agenda full of queries to solve. Its much more fun to feel excited, but relaxed in another persons company without all of the material that naturally accompanies dating being involved.

Many times, when you make friends with a member of the opposite sex you may discover that they definitely wouldn't be good dating material for you. If you are only friends then you know not to pursue them any further than that. At the same time you wont end up hurting their feelings or visa versa.

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