Cuffing season: the time of year when males and females alike look for someone to hold during the cold fall and winter months until spring and summer come along, and they part ways to have their summer flings.

The term “cuffing” comes from the idea that the two people in a relationship will be shackled together, as with handcuffs, through the next few months.

Overall, cuffing season has its negatives and positives, and for some people, it is a great option. However, there can be some major flaws when cuffing is put into practice.

On one hand, it is nice to have somebody that you can have fun with to make family gatherings more bearable. Instead of sitting at the Thanksgiving table stuck between your younger cousins, you can be stuck between your cousins with someone whose company you enjoy.

However, this allows family members to possibly become attached to your cuffee. This is a problem, because when the Fourth of July comes along, everybody will be asking asking where that sweet girl or boy from the Christmas party went.

But it doesn’t stop there. For the next however many months, at every family get-together, they will ask about your past cuffee, even when you introduce them to your new cuffee of the year. This will start an endless cycle of judgement and comparison of whom you decide to bring as your date to family events.

The biggest advantage of cuffing, by far, is that it means you won’t be alone on the holiday most dreaded by singletons: Valentine’s Day. V-day is set towards the end of cuffing season, and it can serve as one big last hurrah for couples who are cuffed.  

But as cuffing season draws to a close, what happens when one partner in the cuffship wants to stay cuffed? Without both people communicating their intentions, it opens up the opportunity for somebody to have their heart broken.

In conclusion, cuffing season is a great way to make what can be the loneliest months of the year more bearable, but it is absolutely necessary that both parties of the cuffship are in agreement and understand that their arrangement is temporary, in order to avoid any hurt feelings.

Elizabeth Harmison is an In-Focus Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.