Do you live with your partner/spouse/mate/SO?

[yardwork]

If you live together, do one or both of you travel often?

I thought about starting this when I saw another thread here tonight asking how often folks call their SOs during the day. A lot of responses indicated long-distance relationships, or partners who travel a lot.

My partner and I have separate homes in the same town. I've been wondering how common that is.

[LeftyMom]

1. 2991 miles.

[yardwork]

3. Do your jobs keep you apart?

[LeftyMom]

7. His job, my school.

[Shine]

4. ...

but who's counting, right? :D

:hi:

[LeftyMom]

9. Certainly not me.

;)

Did this storm ever turn into anything down there? It's still barely raining here.

[Shine]

23. It got crazier overnite with heavy downpours and major winds

it's still windy here this morning, in fact. It's supposed to continue all day.

:hi:

[Shine]

2. I would say that's fairly unconventional, but hey, in my book that's a good thing

:D My dad and his second wife had that same arrangement for a while, in fact. You know what? Anything goes, these days. What the hell is "NORMAL"? heh.

I live with MrShine and have been for the past almost 16 yrs. He's the primary bread-winner for our family and has occasionally had to do some traveling for his job, but not too much lately.

However, it just so happens next week he's probably going to need to fly from CA to NY for a few days for an important meeting.

No biggie.

[yardwork]

5. Sometimes I'm happy with our arrangement, and sometimes not.

I'd probably feel the same way if we lived together - sometimes happy, sometimes not!

[Shine]

6. The intimacy of sharing a daily life and routine is nice

there's something comforting about having a companion to bear witness to our lives, through all the ebbs and flows of Change....

Whenever we need space we take it. We give each other a lot of freedom.

[cbayer]

8. I love my partner/spouse/mate/SO.

And I never wish to be away from him or for him to go away from me.

We live in very close quarters and have not been apart for more than a couple of days since we have pledged to be together.

We are combative and argumentative, but never mean.

I love falling asleep and waking up with him.

Maybe it's too much for most people, but for me it is heaven.

[harmonicon]

10. no, but I used to

I've lived with other girlfriends in the past too. I never found that it was a reason for breaking up, or that it made things any better really.

My girlfriend and I talk about living together again sometime, ideally not sharing a studio apartment with two rats and a dog the next time (five organisms shouldn't be in one room, unless there's a party going on). I have no idea how it will happen though. She moved to France in '06, and will move back to the US to start a doctoral program later this year. I'm in the UK until 2010, and don't know after that. I think I'll have to go anywhere that I can get work.

[Phillycat]

19. First I read that as "five orgasms shouldn't be in one room..."

"unless there's a party going on." HAHAHA!!!!!!!! :rofl:

[SarahB]

11. It would be very hard for me to imagine NOT living with him.

My husband and I were long distance (200 miles) for the first six months we were together. Even though we'd be together at least 1-2 days a week, we wanted more. We have our days and neither of us are perfect, but he is my favorite person in the world and I love sharing my life with him (both the ordinary things and the super-exciting things).

I don't think I could sustain a long distance relationship for very long. For me, it would just be too frustrating and feel like too much is missing. I give lots of credit to those who can.

[Breeze54]

12. I used to but if we still did co-habitate?

He'd be six feet under and I'd be in a 6 x 12 ft room, with 3 squares a day.

Or vice versa. :P

[Omphaloskepsis]

13. No.. But we have keys to each others place.

And we keep hygiene products at both places. We both walk in without knocking and don't care if the other does the same.

[Orsino]

14. That's unconventional...

...and doesn't fit the Right's narrow definition of a family.

Fuck 'em. Families come in all shapes and sizes! The increasingly odd demands of our civilization are forcing people to find stranger and stranger solutions, but people still need people. To be the luckiest people in the world, or something.

[ordinaryaveragegirl]

15. Since 1996.

We were long distance before that - he was in Chicago, I in Ohio.

[grace0418]

16. We dated for 9 years (lived separately) then have been married for 10 years, living

in a small condo. Neither of us travel for work except when he gets sent to a conference once every 2 or 3 years. I have to admit that I love it when he goes away for a few days. Not that I don't love him or love living with him, but he has a better, more flexible job. So there is hardly ever a time when I'm home that he's *not* home. But he's often at home when I'm not. So he gets breaks from me but I never do from him.

[GOPisEvil]

17. 2000 miles or so.

I travel up there from time to time as it is easier for me to get away. She has animals.

It's the plan for the immediate future. It sucks, and it's expensive, but we love each other, so we make it work.

[hippywife]

18. Yep.

We lived apart for seven months from the time we met, him here in OK and me up in OH. We talked on-line (how we met actually) and on the phone, suffering from what we called empty arms syndrome. We hate being away from each other, even for one night. The job I used to have in OH involved quite a bit of travel, so I purposely avoid jobs now that would take me away from home.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

20. live together. we still call each other several times a day

[RetroLounge]

21. Would if I could, but not even possible...

one of us would never see our kids...

RL

[SallyMander]

22. Living in sin

Yep

:rofl:

[fizzgig]

24. HARLOT!

:P

:rofl:

[1gobluedem]

25. Same neighborhood

But we don't live together.

[yardwork]

26. Thank you, everyone, for your replies!

I have the impression that more couples are choosing not to live together, even if they live in the same town, although it is still a very rare choice. It's clear that there are a lot of long-distance relationships, usually due to work, often due to school, sometimes due to needing to be near children.

On the whole, I'm very happy with my living arrangement. My partner and I are deeply committed to one another, but we have very different jobs and schedules. She's an academic who works all the time - day and night, weekends and weekdays. She also works at home a lot. I have an office job with more regular hours, and I need a lot more sleep than she does. Our opinions about decorating are very different - I like overstuffed furniture, floral fabrics, nice dishes. She prefers to reserve space for her equipment and books. I like curling up in bed with my cats. She stays up all night writing.