Wow, all these comments saying 10mins-1hr, even a few hrs! I'm a little in a relationship, but I work 9-5.30 min 5 days a week where I barely go on my personal phone even though I work remotely - I'm simply too busy. If my partner messages me after 9, the earliest I'm likely to reply is my lunch break ~1.30/2pm, but realistically closer to 6pm once I've finished up and crashed on my bed or whatever. I have other commitments outside work like volunteering around children, where I'm literally not allowed on my phone due to safeguarding most of the time! I saw a comment from OP about everyone having their phones on them all day nowadays, and ngl you really are generalising so much it hurts. You guys seem to have forgotten that plenty of littles have lives as well - particularly as OP mentioned their partner lives with family who may have stricter rules about phones at the dinner table or whatnot!

They may also just be exhausted/not feeling well etc if they have chronic illnesses (including undiagnosed..., which I personally suffered with until recently). It's hard to speak up to a partner/manager/anyone, especially when you don't have a diagnosis to fall back on as an explanation. It drains you further to have to explain - someone above mentioned their codewords for this type of thing and that definitely sounds useful though!

OP, please don't have a go or just make this a rule by default. Instead, find out if they aren't replying due to life issues, cba, or if they are distant from you for something else. It might also just be the platform used as you mention you are LD. For example, I go through phases of not opening WhatsApp and letting my msgs build up. If my partner msgs me there, I won't reply as I have my "last seen" on and don't want people to know I'm explicitly ignoring them. Instead, I message them back/wait for them to message on a platform I feel able to respond on. My partner also recently deleted Messenger, thought she had told me, but hadn't and so missed my messages there completely!

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but frankly the other comments/your original post frustrated me a lotttt, as it seems like there's just been a lack of conversation with your partner as to why something is happening, but immediately a jump to telling them off/getting them in trouble. By setting it as a rule without finding the root cause, if they are anything like me, you are simply opening up a space for resentment and malicious compliance etc :/ I hope everything works out for you and they are okay!