Are you going on a first date with someone and unsure about their texts? Are you a few dates in and questioning some of the things someone said or did? Before you go any further with your new interest, read the rest of this post and afterwards you can take our early red flags quiz to go even deeper into exploring early dating red flags.
In our own words, a red flag is the suggestion, or warning sign, of potentially dangerous behavior from someone. Red flags often walk right up to the abusive behavior line and sometimes even dance all over it β and crossing the line can easily happen. Love bombing is when someone frequently attempts to influence another person with over-the-top displays of attention and affection.
They get the other person to tell them intimate details of their life and later use these details against them. It is to attempt to ensure future emotional and physical intimacy while setting you up for long-term manipulation and abuse. If it seems too good to be true, it often is. Everyone has different physical, sexual, digital, and mental boundaries. Boundaries can also look like invading your personal space, asking too personal of questions, or even not respecting your time.
While some boundaries are relatively universal, others might not be. This is why communicating your boundaries is important, especially in the early stages of getting to know someone. If you have set a boundary and they continue to disregard it, this is definitely a red flag. Everyone likes to feel cherished. Check-in messages, from time to time or at appropriate times, can be an early green flag of a relationship. Sometimes the differences between healthy and unhealthy is a fine line.
Do they ask you to share your location with them early on? Do they assume you are on a date with someone else or "checking in" seems to be mean something else? Not only is this for your safety, it can help set early boundaries and establish that your time is valuable.
