Why getting past the honeymoon period is the best part of a relationship

You know you're past the honeymoon phase when you go to the loo and leave the bathroom door open

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Ah, the honeymoon period - it’s all butterflies in your stomach, grinning from ear to ear when they message and not being able to keep your hands off each other.

Everything good must come to an end though, and, usually a few months into a relationship, that blissful, excitable period fizzles out.

But is that actually a bad thing? For a lot of people, it’s once past the honeymoon period that a relationship gets even better.

Women on Reddit have been sharing how they really feel after the honeymoon phase of a long-term relationship, and the most common response? Comfortable.

And one of the main ways this comfort seems to manifest itself is being able to break wind in front of your significant other: “Rather than holding farts in, you now direct your farts at them,” one woman revealed - and many more agreed.

Similarly, going to the loo and allowing your partner to hear: “Peeing with the door open instead of closed,” admitted one woman.

But it wasn’t all about being able to reveal your natural bodily functions - for some women, it’s just about finally feeling relaxed.

One person described being in a long-term relationship as “Like a warm log fire on a cold winter's night,” and another revealed it’s far preferable to the supposedly more exciting early stages:

“For me, the 'honeymoon' phase was plagued with anxiety, doubts and insecurity along with all the lovey-dovey stuff. I felt much more secure and safe after the honeymoon phase,” she explained.

For lots of women, those initial few months of dating someone new left them plagued with doubts over whether the person in question really liked them, so getting past that was welcome relief.

“He feels like being home. A person I feel safe around, comfortable enough to be myself. Being around him is like immediate stress cure. Things that normally seem very important and upsetting melt away,” one woman explained.

Practically all the women in the discussion agreed, but it was one person’s description that seemed to take the words out of everyone’s mouths:

“It's just this feeling of easiness and finally being able to land your plane. During the honeymoon phase you're kind of like on cloud nine, and just hovering around each other trying to get a better view/feel for the other. After a while it just makes sense to come back down to reality, and settle in for the long haul.

“Both times in the relationship are beautiful and exciting in their own right. In the beginning you're always trying to be your best self, then you realise that being your best self is just being the real you and that's appreciated, and loved through and through.”

And if that's not something to remember for both the singletons and coupled-up amongst us, we don't know what is.