I was thinking about this thread the other day and I realized I left one guy out.

The guy I dated for 3.5 years, when we were first seeing each other--into it a few weeks, I just let him know he was mine. I just said it one day & he didn't object.

@CG
The difference between exclusively seeing each other & being a girl/boyfriend is that with exclusivity there is a lower level of commitment, I think. And, it's easier to back out of. Being a boy/girlfriend comes with a higher level of commitment. More emotions involved....more of a "future" is talked about.

I think. But, I suck at relationships, so I could be completely wrong.

I'm currently in the middle of this... awkwardness. My boy (that's what I call him) has stated that we're dating, and I've agreed. Neither one of us are the kind of people who have other people that we'd be talking to, so we're pretty much exclusive (though that hasn't been stated). I'm not afraid to call him "my boy", but I don't call him my boyfriend, and I've never heard him call me his girlfriend. Honestly, for where we're at, I think the title "my boy" is appropriate and works. I'm pretty sure that he'll say one day (in front of me) that I'm his girlfriend, and then we'll go from there.

So it's like a pre-boyfriend? Like the diff between an engagement ring and a promise ring...they both mean essentially the same, but one you can back out of more easily.

I don't see a difference between being exclusive and being a "girlfriend/boyfriend". In MY day, we called it "going with", the generation before me, it was "going steady". Either you're dating casually and open to seeing others or you're exclusive and if you see someone else it is deemed as "cheating". The next step, to me, would be engagement. Exclusive is a commitment with an expectation that you think your partner has potential for a really long term thing.. the "real deal". Why would you agree to be exclusive if he/she wasn't?

As far as I'm concerned, they're one in the same. However, my relationships tend to have a lot of gray areas. I can't remember "anniversaries" very well, and to be honest, when someone asks me how long live-in and I have been together, I have to narrow it down to a two week period and go from there.

IIRC, that time's coming up... I know that we became "exclusive" the same week my mom was diagnosed (right before, actually), in December. For obvious reasons, I can't put any more specific a date on it.