So I asked my wonderful girlfriend last week to marry me, and she said yes. 
She now has a very sparkly ring on her hand, but she says she has no idea when she is supposed to take it off. Do you take your ring off when showering? Sleeping? Cooking? Inappropriately hitting on your coworker?
Of course I told her that as long as she’s comfortable, she can do whatever she wants, but I think she’s looking for opinions on what others do…
I’ve never seen my wife remove her rings except for surgery once, I have to remove mine for safety reasons when I work. Is she only interested in what women do with theirs or men as well?
She’s mostly interested in what women do, but I am also interested in what men do, seeing as how sometime next year I’ll be getting my first ring.
I sometimes remember to take mine off when I shower- it keeps them from getting dull from soap residue, plus I don’t want my lotion gunking them up. I also take mine off when I get a massage, or when I’m lifting weights without my gloves.
I think that’s it.
I use to take it off when I took a shower, that way soap and whatever wouldn’t get in between the rocks.
The only other time he made me take it off was when we went out on the boat. He spent like 5 grand on it and terrified it would fall off and ended up at the bottom of the lake… which in some places is over 100 feet deep. I could see where he was concerned. 
I’m going to have to take it off when I work, as I work with my hands and would hate to get it snagged and lose a finger.
He will too, although he’ll probably rarely wear it even off work. That’s fine with me.
It’s a theoretical ring at the moment, but we’ve discussed it.
I take it off for yoga (I do hot yoga and my hands swell a bit), when I’m putting on lotion, or for a manicure.
Before, when I just had my unadorned promise ring, I never took it off. Now that the SO has proposed, and I have a sparkly ring, I take it off when I shower and when I sleep. I’m always afraid the ring will fall down the drain and I’m pretty sure if I had my ring on while I’m sleeping, I’ll scratch myself. The SO doesn’t mind since he knows how accident prone I am.
I’ve never taken mine off in over 40 years, except to clean it or when in the hospital.
I take it (them, I wear both the engagement and wedding ring, and another on my other hand) off to clean them, to work with certain messy foods (dough), to work with certain chemicals/equipment at work (mostly when there’s a risk of staining or a degloving accident) and to dragon-boat, as they dig into my hands when I paddle.
Crater Lake? 
I take mine off often - when I’m showering, cooking, doing grimy housework, gardening, walking the dogs, etc. This one has many (tiny) diamond chips in the band, and I’m afraid of dislodging one. Also things like grease, lotion, & dust can get in between and make it dull looking.
My mother took hers off rarely. She even did her diaper-dipping while wearing it. :eek:
Hubby only takes his band off when working on something which it could hang in, or when an electric arc is of concern.
I say you and she should do what feels comfortable to ya.
I only take my wedding ring off to play with it. I fidget. Well, I guess I do take it off to make certain messy foods (like bread).
I never wear my engagement ring because I keep scratching myself with it.
I wore mine for 16 years without ever taking it off. I left it on the courtroom bench as the divorce was being pronounced lawful and complete. My ex was kind of pissed about it, but she wanted the divorce, I wanted no physical reminders.
I’ve never taken mine off. (We just celebrated our first wedding anniversary, but I also have a promise ring he gave me when we first got serious, and I only took it off once - to switch it from my left hand to my right, when we got married.) He took his off once, by accident.
My grandmother was married for over 60 years, and she never took her ring off once. She did a lot of hard labor when she was younger, and the big diamond in her ring had a gouge out of it from years of beating against rocks. (She was a gardener.) It didn’t look shiny and new - actually it looked like hell - but you could tell that it was very dear to her and that she took it very seriously as a symbol of their love. I learned most of my sentimentality from my gran!!
That said, your special lady should do whatever she and you feel comfortable with. If she wants to take it off to play in the mud, and you’re okay with it, then go for it! It really is all about personal preference.
The type of setting may influence what she decides to do. I have known any number of women with diamonds in Tiffany settings who’ve lost their diamonds in cookie dough or the like.
She should go to a jeweler to get her ring cleaned periodically, and they’ll check the prongs and make sure the stone is secure.
I never took mine off. When I first got pregnant, I tried, but my hands had swollen a bit, and it never came off again, until the day of the divorce, at which time I had them cut off my finger. I do have a permanent…well, not exactly a scar, but a double line mark on my finger now, but I consider that a battle scar and I’m kind of proud of it. I never really felt a need to take them off all those years…even when working with messy stuff. I’d just rinse and brush them off later. Plus I’ve heard too many stories of women taking their rings off in a public bathroom to wash their hands, and either forgetting them there, or dropping them down the sink. My ring was comfortable, and the stones never loosened, and it wasn’t so high-profile that it snagged on much…when I put on pantyhose I would turn it toward my palm so as not to snag things. I never even had the stones checked or tightened…he may not have been much of a husband, but he bought a good, strong, secure ring. Found out the day it was cut off it was platinum…all those years I’d thought it was white gold.
I’ve been married for twelve years plus, and most of the time, never take off my engagement or wedding rings. I leave them on for gardening, showering, dishes, and what have you. It’s a pretty simple setting and not incredibly expensive. The only time I’ve not worn them is when we were going through a rough patch (it happens) and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be married any more. That was more symbolic than anything. I’ve gained about 20 pounds since the wedding day… okay, maybe 30, and getting the rings off is a bit of an effort, so it only happens when I’m seriously pissed off at my husband, or uncertain about our marriage. But being very simple and not tremendously expensive, for day-to-day living, they stay on my left hand.
Male here. I never take my wedding band off… almost 14 years now.
Mrs. Pagan takes hers off for a lot of the above reasons - gardening in the dirt, painting, lotioning, kneading dough, etc., but she does sleep and shower with them on.
For the first few years, I never took it off. Then after I started getting arthritic, I couldn’t wear it anymore and took it off. I always planned to put it on a chain and wear it around my neck but never got around to it. I don’t even know where it is anymore.
I’ve never taken my wedding band off (almost 18 years now). My wife wears her wedding band all the time too, but wears her engagement ring (designed to nestle into her wedding band) nowadays just for special occasions - it’s a little clunky otherwise.
I’ve read of doctors and surgeons who have to take off their wedding and engagement rings all the time for reasons of convenience and/or sterility. 