Couples Therapist Warns This Date Could Be the End of Your Relationship

April Fools’ Day is coming up…consider this your formal warning not to fuck with your partner this year.

According to a recent study by the dating app Hily, 53 percent of young American women and 25 percent of men said they’d end their relationship over a cruel or mean April Fools’ joke. Even so, 45 percent of women and 49 percent of men said they’re likely to partake in the jokester holiday with their date this year.

While some jokes can be harmless, others can do irreversible damage to your relationship. Even if you choose to forgive your partner for that offensive or hurtful prank they played on you, you still might experience resentment or distrust underneath it all.

Couples Therapist Warns April 1st Could Be the End of Your Relationship

According to Dr. Marisa T. Cohen, relationship scientist at Hily, mean or cruel April Fools’ jokes or pranks can have a variety of negative impacts, like breaking trust and harming communication.

Look, I get it. An innocent, harmless joke—like telling your boyfriend you accidentally got diesel gas instead of regular—can be funny in the moment. But anything that might stir up intense fear or trigger abandonment issues is a no-go on my watch.

“Pranks often involve less-than-innocent deception, and the joke is usually made at another person’s expense,” Dr. Cohen said. “This can wreck the foundation of trust and security relationships are based on. When you tell your date or partner something that is not true as a joke, it might make them question everything you share with them. If you lied to them once just to laugh at them, what’s stopping you from lying again?”

Not only that, but one harmless prank can start a war of revenge pranks…which could greatly escalate over time.

“While it may start out lighthearted and fun, over time the pranks can escalate, shifting the connection between partners,” Dr. Cohen explained. “Something as seemingly little as unscrewing the top of a ketchup bottle can wind up blown way out of proportion, keeping both partners on edge and creating a lot of tension.”

Furthermore, this can lead to pent-up resentment and power imbalances, which are just recipes for relationship disasters.

So, if you want to remain in a happy and healthy relationship this year, maybe don’t celebrate April Fools’ Day with any funny business—at least not the joking kind.

“Remember that there’s a fine line between jokes and just being cruel,” Dr. Cohen said. “Think twice before you play an ‘innocent’ joke or prank on your partner or date. There is a risk of losing them forever.”