Well, today offers the chance to take matters into your own hands.

The year 2012 just happens to be a leap year and, in keeping with an old Irish tradition, February 29 is the one time when it’s acceptable for a woman to propose to her partner, rather than the other way around.

Staff at WJ Coote and Sons said yesterday they hadn’t heard customers talking about plans for a leap year proposal, but would wait and see what evolved today.

WJ Coote and Sons sales associate Tania Reedy said such things had happened in the past.

“I do remember some years back a girl came in on February 29, bought her own ring and proposed to her boyfriend, but it was a while ago,” she said.

“She came in, chose the ring and went and proposed. She was very excited about it.”

Mrs Reedy said it was hard to know if many girls would take advantage of the leap year tradition. “I’m not expecting a huge rush, but you never know,” she said.

Colleague Jodie Comerford said most girls prefer to wait for their boyfriends to propose.

“But that doesn’t mean they can’t drop plenty of hints,” she said.

Mrs Comerford remembers a girl who proposed to her boyfriend simply because she got sick of waiting for him to pop the question.

“She just said to him ‘do you want to do this’ and he said ‘yes’,” she said.

Michael Coote, who hadn’t heard of the tradition, said it was confusing.

“Normally the guy asks the father [for permission] and then proposes to his girlfriend,” he said. “But what happens tomorrow? Do they ask the girl’s mother?”.