What do you think marks the limit between friendship and romantic relationship?

It seems obvious to pretty much everyone I know, but I don't get it. What makes a friendship become a romantic relationship? What's different between the two, beside the name and the social values that are associated with it?

Does it make sense to you? Am I the only one who is confused about this?

It really ranges from person to person, culture to culture. Some people would say that a kiss indicates a relationship to be beyond friendship. But in some countries, strangers will kiss each other on the cheek as a greeting. Even two people in the same society can see things widely differently. Hugs are very special to me and I don't give them out very often. My sister gives people hugs all the time.

For me, cuddling and kissing are things I would do in a romantic relationship, not a friendship, so that's my personal limit.

It's a bit vague, but I see romantic relationships as relationships in where people engage in courtship behaviour which usually, but not always, leads to mating. Behaviour that seems to have the intent of forming a couple.

Thought I may write later about other distinctive points of dating, today I'll focus on intention, which I dropped in another thread. I'll start with a religious parallelism. The Roman Catholic doctrine on Eucharist states that the consecration of bread and wine is valid if (1) a validly consecrated priest (2) perform a valid consecration rite (3) with intention of consecrating. The three conditions are necessary, so a consecration is fake if it's performed by a fake priest or a priest without intention. For instance, a priest teaching about Eucharist may quote the consecrating formula without worrying of consecrating any bread or wine nearby. In the case of dating, we may discuss if the intention of both people is necessary or only one's is enough, but I think that, as in Catholic Eucharist, the intention is as important as the rite.

I feel like the line is thin but highly visible. I don't have butterflies when I see friends, but I get really excited. I enjoy being near my friends, but it is different than it would be if I felt a romantic attraction. There is less of a need to please. Friends are people you can be yourself around. That is how I feel though.