Milestoning is the cuffing-esque dating trend to keep an eye out for next year

Written by Lauren Geall

As Stylist’s digital writer, Lauren Geall writes on topics including mental health, wellbeing and women’s issues. She’s also a big fan of houseplants and likes to dabble in film and TV from time-to-time. You can find her on Twitter at @laurenjanegeall.

Milestoning is the new dating trend helping singles secure dates for big events – and it’s set to be big in 2023.

Name: Milestoning

Meaning: A bit like cuffing, but not just for Christmas. Milestoning describes the need many people feel to ramp up their dating behaviour ahead of a big event – such as a 30th birthday or wedding – in order to secure a date. In short, it’s pretty sneaky.

Origin: Plenty Of Fish highlighted ‘milestoning’ as part of its 2023 dating trends report in partnership with dating expert Alix Fox. It may not be quite as meaningful as some of the other dating trends out there, but milestoning is all about getting the job done – and as we head into 2023, it seems more and more of us will be relying on big events to give us dating motivation.  

So, how does it actually work? Milestoning isn’t exactly complicated – it just requires you to swipe more frequently in the lead-up to a milestone event. It’s a lot of work, though: you might be talking to two, three, four or more people at once in order to find someone suitable for your big moment.

That sounds… Toxic? Yeah, it can be. I guess it depends on whether or not the milestoner intends to keep seeing their date after the big event has taken place – dropping someone as soon as the clock strikes midnight is pretty harsh, but if you’re going to keep things going, then it could just be a source of motivation to put yourself out there.

I was actually going to say genius. We have very different ways of seeing the world, don’t we?

Someone’s got to keep things interesting around here! Rude. 

So, do you think it’s best to make your intentions clear from the outset or subtly drop an invite to your big event into conversation after a couple of dates? Again, it’s down to personal preference. I’ve definitely seen people on dating apps use the fact that they’re looking for a date to a wedding as a conversation starter – but if you don’t feel comfortable being open like that, you could always get chatting to a few people and see how you feel before going all in.

Sounds good. I’ll add that to my list. What list?

My list of pick-up lines – I’m becoming an expert at this whole dating thing. I don’t think dating ‘experts’ need a whole list of pick-up lines to get through a date…

Just wait until you see who I bring to the Christmas party this year – I’ve already started drawing up a shortlist. Remind me why I tell you about these trends again? 

Image design: Esme Marsh

Image: Getty

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