The Best Time In A Relationship To Have “The Talk”

Whether it's to discuss dating exclusively or tackle the topic of marriage, figuring out the best time to have "The Talk" can be tricky, whatever the stage or your relationship. To shed some light on the topic, dating site Zoosk polled more than 5,000 of its users for their thoughts on the best times to have different potentially uncomfortable state-of-the-union conversations. Zoosk surveyed both gay and straight users, and found that men and women had different preferences when it comes to discussing exclusivity. Almost half of the men surveyed thought it was important to define the relationship as either "exclusive" or "nonexclusive" within the first few dates; only a third of women agreed. In fact, 49% of women wanted to wait until after the first few months of dating to have the define-the-relationship talk. Looking a little farther ahead, 56% of the men and 54% of the women women surveyed thought six months was the appropriate time to discuss marriage. To be clear, the wedding conversation Zoosk referred to was whether or not partners wanted to get married, not what kind of flatware and flowers they were envisioning at the reception. Zoosk asked users about other big talks, too. Half of the men and women surveyed thought people should wait until after the first few weeks of dating to discuss previous relationships. But when it came to sex, Zoosk users thought that anything "sexually unusual," like virginity status or fetishes, should be shared with your date right away — upon first interaction. Though we're not so sure that these two topics in particular necessarily ought to be addressed at the same point in a relationship's timeline. Check out more insights from Zoosk's survey in the infographic, below.