Why is it rare for a pair of childhood friends to fall in love with each other?

[SuperHeroMan]

I've never knew an teenage or an adult couple who knew each other since they were small children.

[preraph]

Because they knew each other as children and feel more sisterly/brotherly. It would feel incestuous. There's no mystery, there's nothing more to learn about the person. So dating them would be borrrring.

[SuperHeroMan]

Because they knew each other as children and feel more sisterly/brotherly. It would feel incestuous. There's no mystery, there's nothing more to learn about the person. So dating them would be borrrring.

 

Yeah, I heard about how people tend to feel sisterly/brotherly towards their childhood friends. I wonder why that is though.

[SuperHeroMan]

Also something I find interesting is that childhood friends falling in love with each other happens almost all the time in movies, TV shows, books, comic books, and video games. But it actually doesn't happen often in real life.

[amaysngrace]

Thomas Rhett and his wife Lauren knew each other since the Second Grade.

 

I know a couple couples who went to elementary school together and are still together now. One couple both suffered loss relatively young, her father and his mother, so maybe they each took on those roles together? I don’t know but they’re a great couple and have a nice family.

 

The other couple is friends with the first couple.

 

There’s also a couple like that from my own grade. They’ve been together for as long as I can remember, went to every dance and prom together and they’re still really a good match.

 

Maybe it’s just how it is in a small town.

[JJ15818]

Oh, it was my dream - to meet my love in teenager age, get merried and live together all life. But it was not happened. As usually in childhood we have idealistic image about life and people around us so it's not so easy to save good relations.

Edited September 25, 2018 by JJ15818

[SuperHeroMan]

Thomas Rhett and his wife Lauren knew each other since the Second Grade.

 

I know a couple couples who went to elementary school together and are still together now. One couple both suffered loss relatively young, her father and his mother, so maybe they each took on those roles together? I don’t know but they’re a great couple and have a nice family.

 

The other couple is friends with the first couple.

 

There’s also a couple like that from my own grade. They’ve been together for as long as I can remember, went to every dance and prom together and they’re still really a good match.

 

Maybe it’s just how it is in a small town.

Celebrities and famous people who married their childhood friend are in the small minority though. Also in small towns, there's way less people in them compared to bigger towns, so it makes sense that people are way more likely to fall in love with a childhood friend in smaller places compared to the bigger places.

 

But however when you talk to most couples about how they met, they will most likely say that they met as either teenagers or adults. It is hard to find couples who said that they met as children.

[No_Go]

I've never knew an teenage or an adult couple who knew each other since they were small children.

 

As others said, it has to do with incest perception most likely. We usually remember snapshots of people from the time we met, and prepubescent imagery is usually enough to suppress sexual desires.

[thefooloftheyear]

Didn't work out so well for poor Forrest Gump and Jenny....

 

TFY

[basil67]

I've never knew an teenage or an adult couple who knew each other since they were small children.

 

Family aside, I don't have *anybody* in my life that I knew as a small child. Possibly part of growing up in a capital city.

 

Perhaps in small communities, back in time before people could travel easily, they were restricted to those from that community.

[Sunlight72]

Family aside, I don't have *anybody* in my life that I knew as a small child. Possibly part of growing up in a capital city.

 

Perhaps in small communities, back in time before people could travel easily, they were restricted to those from that community.

That's an interesting point Basil. I also don't have any friends from, well, really from more than about 6 years ago. I've lived in my current small town for 14 years.

I grew up in a small town, and I could chat with some old acquaintances if I would pick up the phone, but I don't. None call me either, and I am happy to not live there.

 

In my case, I did have a best friend who is a woman now. I loved her as a more than a friend for a few years, but I very much agree with the comment above - there was no mystery. Once I went to a new school, even though we were still neighbors, we grew apart and it never again occurred to me that she might be a romantic possibility. But those other girls in 7th grade - hubba hubba!

[major_merrick]

Well, my husband and I have known each other for most of our lives. Not since we were really really young, though. But long enough that I can't really remember when we met. I think it was around the time my little sister was born.

Anyways, it took a long time for us to turn our adolescent relationship into something that works. Some in this thread have commented about a brother/sister image keeping people from a relationship...at least in my case I don't think so. My husband does feel like a brother or close relative, and that increases the trust in the relationship without inhibiting my sexual desire. I think when you grow up in a threatening environment, mystery = threat. There isn't much about my husband that is mysterious, so I feel safe. Even when we split years ago and he married someone else, we just couldn't stay away from each other and our friendship continued in spite of efforts to move on.