As I was listening to conversations between young guys, maybe teenagers or those in their early twenties, they kept using the term “my missus”.

So I started to ask them: Are you married? No was generally the case, but they still referred to their girlfriends as their “missus”.

It seems that this is a common term that, after a set period of what they considered to be an appropriate time, they would use to describe their girlfriends.

In my day, you wouldn’t call someone your “missus” until you were married. But with the change in people living together before they get married, or even the high number of people having sex before they get married, this now seems to be the norm.

So I guess the question is: what is an an appropriate amount of time after you have started going out do you call someone your “missus”?

Would love to hear your feedback on this.