What’s the difference between girlfriend and wife ?

31 comments

1. A ring and a Marriage license

2. The wife doesn’t know about the girlfriend but the girlfriend knows about the wife

3. Marriage

4. One has a longer subscription

5. If you break up, one just leaves with your favorite hoodie and the other leaves with everything of yours.

6. About 2 1/2 miles

7. Realistically, should be nothing more than a ceremony and a title. If she doesn’t fulfill your needs as a girlfriend, she certainly won’t after a marriage.

8. A contract?

9. Paperwork

10. if it works out, it shouldn’t matter. If it doesn’t – breaking up with your wife is way more complicated

11. Wife has only 4 letter to combine.

    Girlfriend has more posiblities.

12. A great girlfriend is one you want to make a wife.

    A great wife is one who never stops being your girlfriend.

13. So interesting to see the answers here. Marriage is… or I guess moreso was.. a commitment and some describe as an institution. Religion was involved and it was why certain groups of people got all uptight when marriage laws started changing.

    I think it’s what you make of it. A lot of men it’s just a piece of paper which I may be part of that but it’s completely different for my wife for which I think it represents security and commitment.

    It also means a lot for your future kids if you decide to go that route.

14. For me my girlfriend became my wife and didn’t change. No difference in the relationship.

15. Lose one, you’ll lose a hoodie. Lose the other? You’ll lose your life.

    Jokes aside, intimacy seems to grow more with wife than gf. Like I know her ticks and thoughts and such. I suppose that comes with time.

16. In my case, about 180k in lawyers.

17. Bonus question to all the gentlemen that said they changed after marriage if I may:
    Did you keep putting the same effort and care on the relationship than before the wedding?

18. For me nothing changed other than the title. On a more realistic side the financial, tax, and medical benefits when being married has been more beneficial for us then when we were not married.

19. A tax break and the opportunity to lose half of everything if you split up.

20. When I was younger I had a girlfriend. I was madly in love with her and I thought she might be “the one”. We dated for a year, but as soon as she heard a hint that I might merry her, suddenly it was “Oh I want THIS ring, and THIS dress, in THIS venue” (looking at $10,000+) I was 18 and JUST starting out with no car, an internship that left me exhausted and broke everyday. So I started stressing. Next thing I know she keeps “thinking ” she is pregnant and that I was definitely the daddy and that I NEEDED to get her a ring and marry her NOW.It was…well idk if lies or fantasy? But she wasn’t pregnant, and I wasn’t the daddy, and her turning into this greedy, crazy troll made me instantly stop falling in love with her. I might not know what The difference is between a wife and girlfriend (as I haven’t been married) but I do know what Red Flags look like and I’m smarter for it now.

21. IMO you have a lot more flexibility with a girlfriend in terms of the kinds of women that can fill that role. You can manage with a girlfriend that’s a little unstable, doesn’t have a healthy lifestyle, or has some questionable baggage.

    With a wife, stability becomes the most important thing. Divorce is so detrimental that it’s more important for your wife to be stable and healthy than it is for her to be super exciting and fun. Your wife is a life partner who you’re invested in, your fates are linked to a large degree. A girlfriend isn’t much different than a friend, you can cut them out for free if they start being a net-negative in your life.

22. At some point there’s no difference. After me and my (now) wife had lived together for like 8 years without even thinking much about it, we were eating chicken wings on the couch and just said, “we should probably get married” and went and filled out the paperwork lol. Not very glamourous but we felt married already at that point.

23. Girlfriend comes after parents, brothers and sisters.

    Wife goes straight to the #1 spot.

24. Wife is legally binding

25. Involving the government for a breakup

26. I’m my experience, not much except for level of anxiety. Being married has made me much more secure in the relationship so it’s more fun now.

27. Fart frequency. Vast increase in hers after the ring goes on.

28. Your wife is family. The intensity of romantic love disappears over time, but there’s an even stronger love formed over the years you grow old together. There’s not much difference between your girlfriend and your wife the day you marry her, but if you keep making each other happy every day for years it’s a truer connection, ‘for better or for worse.’

29. A wife is for life

30. When my girlfriend became my wife, things got even better. No more stress of planning a wedding, no more pressure to get married. I loved her absolutely when we were dating, I love her even more now. The way I see it, it’s better to be alone than be in a bad marriage/relationship, but it is amazing to be in a great marriage.

    And I do think that the marriage step is important. The commitment you make to each other, the title, the rings, all of it, I think, matters a lot. I think some people are scared of commitment and don’t want to face that.

31. With a long term girlfriend I lived with, I always made plans as if there was a good chance it will end at some point. So all long term plans had to sort of have two outcomes.

    Once married, I was willing to make plans that assume we’ll be together for the foreseeable future. I mean, people change, so divorce (or death) is always a possibility, but I don’t base my plans on that being likely. That’s the biggest difference. I’m willing to invest a lot more into my partner and our relationship, especially when it comes to big financial and career decisions.