Couples in Quarantine
The novel Coronavirus has shut down the entire world, keeping many of us indoors with stay at home orders. I imagine that this is a hard time for many couples who don’t live with each other or just couples in general. Having over 10,000 followers on Instagram, I decided to ask my followers a few questions around the subject of relationships in quarantine.
Here are my questions and their responses:
Are you single or in a relationship?
203 responded
76 are in a relationship
127 are single
Do you think quarantine made being in a relationship harder or easier?
133 responded
82 say it’s harder
51 say it's easier
I also gave people the option to write about how this quarantine has affected their relationship. 43 people responded and I got some interesting responses, here are the responses of three people.
Ama & Terrance • London, England
Ama has been in a relationship with Terrance for three years; they live with each other.
“Our relationship surprisingly changed for the better. We don’t get on one another’s nerves half as much as we used to. Also, we have been able to bond and get to know one another all over again. Honestly, I learned Terence was a pig and didn’t know how to clean up after himself at all lol, BUT when made aware of it, he made the conscious effort to change that.”
“I also learned that I’m the optimist in the relationship, though I have the shortest temper and get annoyed easier, so I guess we balance one another out. He’s let me cut and dye his hair, and I’ve let him help me paint my nails and do girly stuff too. Quarantine has definitely been a period of growth for us both. In particular, these past weeks regarding the BLM movement. He has stood by me against his family, and that to me was astonishing as he would usually let them dictate his views. But again, I reiterate we changed for the better during the quarantine.”
Faith & Dwayne • New Jersey
Faith on her relationship with Dwayne. They have been together for three years.
“Considering the circumstances, I wouldn’t say for better or worse; we just made it work. A pandemic wasn’t ideal bc we don’t live together yet, and it’s made us not see each other since March, (Other than dropping off essentials). So, I guess you can consider that aspect was the “worst of it” so we had to shift into being on the phone whenever we both aren’t at work & with that comes a lot of reassurance from time to time & being more vocal with the way we love each other. I guess you can say it “tested us individually” because we had to find another means of speaking each other’s love language. Especially because I am big on quality time, so I found a better way to cope with: words of affirmation. With him, it was physical touch. He coped by dropping things off and having 5 minute long conversations from each other’s place from a distance. As I said, it wasn’t a better situation for us because of the pandemic, but it wasn’t bad. If anything I learned that, if someone loves you, they will go above the norm to make sure your foundation is still solid. This quarantine was a time where we pressed into God more than when we were together weirdly. We started reading together on the phone or summarizing books or chapters. We discovered more skills that we didn’t know we have while we were apart. I genuinely believe this has to happen for us, so when we regroup or take those big steps in marriage or living together, we would be more prepared than we thought we were. If something were to happen where we had to be months apart, we could survive it. I’ve seen couples fall apart because of the quarantine & I’ve seen others who started to question their relationship. I feel like maturity plays a huge role in relationships our age & if your foundation wasn’t stable from the start, then of course you were going to run into a lot of issues.”
Johansel & Joy • New York
Johansel has been dating his girlfriend for eight months.
“During quarantine, what changed was our communication, we couldn’t agree with things do to the transition. We’re both very outgoing, so staying inside made it harder to be free. And all of that build in frustration of staying indoors, not working and doing the same thing every day, made it hard to agree on something. But we definitely got closer and learned new ways to communicate in a tight situation like quarantine. Our relationship has gotten stronger in the past three months. Now that coronavirus is slowly leaving, I’m sure our relationship will blossom and be better than before! We learned so much from each other during this time!”