What is 'stashing' - the new dating trend that could be the next 'ghosting'?
You don't want it happening to you
Modern dating is HARD. It’s hard! If you’re not being ghosted, you’re being catfished; if you’re not struggling with Tinder-induced low self-esteem you’re literally throwing a poo out of the bathroom window and then getting stuck in said window. It’s a miracle anyone ever manages to have sex, really.
So great news: there’s a new term designed to make you feel rubbish about your love life! Coined by Metro lifestyle editor Ellen Scott, the latest dating trend is ‘stashing’ – and if you’re unlucky in love, it may well have happened to you.
Picture the scene. You’ve been dating for a while. You really like them. They’ve met your friends; your friends like and/or will tolerate them until you split up. But… wait a minute… you haven’t met a SINGLE PERSON in their life. They don’t tag you in any of their posts. In fact, looking at their social media, you’d be hard pushed to tell whether they were dating someone at all.
Buddy? You’ve been stashed.
Stashing, essentially, is when someone stashes you away somewhere nobody in their life will ever see, meet or interact with you. But why, you ask? Because, Ellen says, this means they’re “able to pretend they’re not really dating” you. Which means they can “get with other people, do what they fancy, and be generally inconsiderate and awful”.
“You’re in a relationship or dating in all other senses, but by refusing to acknowledge your existence publicly, or to other people in their life, the stasher is able to tell themselves that you’re not actually together, so they’re perfectly entitled to treat you poorly,” she writes.
If you’re being stashed? Dump ‘em, mate. Plenty more fish in the sea to be ghosted or otherwise treated poorly by!
(Image: iStock)
