Love & Sex

The word on the street is that the adorable Emma Stone and her man Andrew Garfield have adopted a 2-year-old Golden Retriever. They named him Ren. Totally sweet, right? But fast forward to the day these two break up and there's a custody battle over where Ren is going to live. Not that I want these two to break up ... but they're young and Hollywood and these things happen. Stone and Garfield have only been dating a year, which is sort of a lifetime in Tinseltown, but it's really not that long. You figure you have the beginning months where you are still unsure if you're even exclusive, then you have about the six month mark where you know you are, and this is just six months longer than that.

Perhaps they're rushing into things. We all do it. Doesn't mean we should. To try to avoid bad feelings when the breakup does happen, let's review the things couples rush into way too soon.

1. Buying a pet together. Emma and Andrew bought a dog, but this goes for cats, birds, hamsters, snakes, lizards, spiders, and even fish. Hey, some people get really attached to fish. A split could make that sitch painful.
2. Saying "I love you." Make sure you mean it. Really, really mean it. Once you say it, there's no going back to not saying it. And then if you don't say it the other person will wonder where they stand and ... complications arise.
3. Sleeping over every single night. If your love lasts there will be plenty of time for togetherness every night. Before that, enjoy your time alone. In your own bed. Without anyone to steal the covers.
4. Mixing your record collection. You will be fighting over who really owns Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy if the split happens.
5. Getting matching tattoos. That's forever stuff.
6. Having sex without protection. This is forever stuff, too. Kids are forever and so are some STDs.
7. Spilling gossip about your friends. If you tell your guy the dirt on your BFF and then you break up, he's got the dirt on your BFF and will use it to drive a rift between you so he can then sleep with her. Avoid that to avoid that.
8. Moving in together. See #3.
9. Buying a house together. See #8 and times it by a million and add fights about money.
10. Sharing a bank account. More money is more problems, and so is marrying your monies before you are married. Some marrieds don't even share a bank account.
11. Sharing passwords. Changing all your passwords after a breakup is annoying. Trust me on that one. Plus you don't want your ex knowing the password to your Facebook account and only realizing it when it too late and he posts a photo of you naked on it as revenge.
12. Meeting the parents. Mom and dad don't need to know the guy or girl you are getting it on with. Spare them.
13. Meeting the kids. More importantly spare your kids meeting someone who is a newbie/maybe.

 What would you add to the list?

Image via Emily Rachel Hildebrand/Flickr