Mamamia Team Thursday 10 March 2011 2:02pm

• (35)
• (14)
• (217)

You mean we have to stay together 3 years IN A ROW???

Has your partner put on weight recently? Do they leave nail clippings on the bathroom floor? Do they snore? Wear unfashionable underwear? Because really you might want to think about kicking their arse to the curb.  Don’t even wait another day.

Remember the 7 year itch? It’s gone.  Replaced by the 3 year itch.  Because you know we are so busy, we can’t even wait 4 more years to start scratching.

A survey of 2,000 British adults in a study commissioned by Warner Brothers to promote the release of comedy film “Hall Pass” in UK cinemas shows that most steady relationships marked  36-months as the time when relationship stress levels peak. The study also showed a trend of more girls or boys nights out even solo  holidays away from partners to keep the romance alive. According to a Reuters report:

“The poll compared feedback from those in short-term relationships (defined as less than three years) and people who were married or in longer-term partnerships.

The findings showed that 67 percent of all of those surveyed said that small irritations which are seemingly harmless and often endearing during the first flushes of love often expand into major irritations around 36 months.

More than half of the Brits surveyed (52 percent) who were in younger relationships said they enjoyed sexual relations at least three times a week, compared to just 16 percent of those in relationships older than three years.

This suggests that as we get older together, romance gives way to day to day practicalities, supported by the fact that 55 percent of busy people in longer-term relationships admit that they now have to “schedule” their romantic time.

The report also said that those in the first flush of love can look forward to an average of three compliments a week from their partners – a figure which falls to an average of a single weekly compliment at the three-year high tide mark.

The prognosis gets worse the longer we stay in relationships, three in 10 of those surveyed that have been in a relationship for five years or more said that they never receive any compliments from their partners.”

The top 10 passion-killers:

1. Weight gain/lack of exercise, 13 percent;

2. Money & Spend thriftiness, 11 percent;

3. Anti-social working hours, 10 percent;

4. Hygiene issues (personal cleanliness), 9 percent;

5. In-Laws/extended family – too much/too little, 9 percent;

6. Lack of romance (sex, treats etc.), 8 percent;

7. Alcohol – drinking too much, 7 percent;

8. Snoring & anti social bedtime habits, 6 percent;

9. Lapsed fashion-Same old underwear/clothes, 4 percent;

10. Bathroom habits – Stray nail cuttings etc., 4 percent.

How long have you been in your current relationship or how long was your last relationship?  What are the little things that kill the LURVE for you?