Browsing: open relationship

When introducing a new romantic interest to our friends and loved ones, we all want this person to be well received and well liked. We want our family and friends to find them attractive, interesting, funny, and basically dig them like we do. We polyamorists are much the same, but we have a much more critical judge – our primary partner.

I’ve met a few poly couples and read about many more who have a Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) policy in their relationship. They both date other people, but have a rule that they should share as little as possible about their outside relationships with each other. I can’t decide if this is a brilliant idea or a really terrible idea for a relationship.

As we have grown as a couple and individuals, we have entered into the world of polyamory. Ally is bisexual. We were both very secure with ourselves and our relationship, so after much discussion we decided to open our marriage.

When I first started engaging in non-monogamy, I was living in a big American city with a large, liberal social network. It wasn’t that hard to find like-minded people. We moved from the US to Europe over a year ago and we’ve been celibate ever since.

There are plenty of reasons why people who are in open relationships are also in marriages (their own marriages, not someone else’s). People may choose to explore open relationships after they have already gotten married. I know plenty of people who were married long before they got into the life style. Couples who were already open may choose to get married for health insurance, immigration, tax or a whole host of other, pragmatic reasons. While they may have been together and loved each other for a long time, what ultimately sends them down the aisle is the desire for one of them to finally have dental coverage.

Q: My boyfriend and I are considering an open relationship. We are happy and in love and I am content with him as my only sexual partner, but he misses the freedom of being able to flirt and be a pick-up artist at the bars. I think I could get used to him having sex with other women, but I don’t feel the urge to explore sexually with other men. Could it work to be in a one-sided open relationship?…or is that doomed to lead to trouble?

When a public person intimates that she might forgive her man for cheating, the internet is abuzz with speculation and condemnation of swinging and open relationships