Hookup partner isn't husband material

DEAR AMY: I am a 24-year-old woman who has been involved with a man since high school. In high school, we'd hook up, and then afterward he'd act like he didn't know me. Now we are dating, and I still haven't met his family. When we get together, he only seems to want to have sex. I'd be happy to sit and watch a movie or make dinner. I want to get married before I have children. I don't know, but I don't see this happening with him because it feels more like a fling to me. Is he my boyfriend?Confused

DEAR CONFUSED: I'll state what you already know: You are a booty call. After years of hooking up, if an actual friendship or romantic relationship was going to develop, it would have happened long ago. I don't know if this arrangement even qualifies as a "fling," because, frankly, a fling sounds like more fun than what you are experiencing.

If you find you enjoy these encounters and accept them for what they are, then by all means continue. Do not marry this person. Do not try to "date" him. And, please, do not have a baby with him. If you are ready for commitment, you deserve to have someone in your life who wants to be with you in the daytime, who wants what you want, and who, yes, will be brave enough to go out in public with you.

DEAR AMY: I'm responding to comments about the use of "party buses," on which bridal parties get drunk together between the wedding and the reception. The increase in binge drinking has taken an ominous turn. Binge drinking has quadrupled among young women since 1990. I am a researcher on fetal alcohol syndrome. Half of all pregnancies are unplanned! Therefore, many young women drink at the most critical stage of pregnancy -- before they are aware they are pregnant.Laura in Wilmington, N.C.

DEAR LAURA: Binge drinking also may be a factor in some of these (unplanned) pregnancies.