People working 2 jobs in the US (at least one part-time) - 7.8 Million (Roughly 4.9% of the workforce)
People working 2 full-time jobs in the US - 360,000 (0.2% of the workforce)
Average time worked weekly by the US Workforce - 34.5 hours
I leave. They've breached a relationship that's predicated on extreme trust. I don't share partners, have no desire to, and this has never been unclear between us.
This would also demonstrate that my wife has ceased to feel the same way about us that she has for years.
I place great value on exclusivity and loyalty. Perhaps some people are capable of engaging in healthy, intimate, trusting relationships without these boundaries, but I am not that person and my wife is not that person. I would not feel the same about my wife if she were intimate with anyone else and her feeling about the matter is the same. Betrayal is a marriage ruiner.
Really though, I'm being charitable when I say that maybe other people are capable of this - I'm quite skeptical, but grant that other people may genuinely just not experience feelings of attachment.
I agree that betrayal is wrong. What I am questioning why bother making it a betrayal in the first place. I don't understand why you need to so tightly entwine intimacy and attachment to sex. Sex can be an expression of intimacy and attachment, but it doesn't always have to be, and the notion that intimacy and attachment are these finite resources that get expended if you have sex with someone else, even if the sex is fleeting, unintimate, and unattached, just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. My love for my wife, the bond we have, these are not things that are contingent upon sex. By your logic, if she became incapable of having sex tomorrow, intimacy and attachment are now impossible for us to express.
"stop puting you idiotic liberal words into my mouth"
-ynnady
Likewise, I don't understand how you don't feel that intimacy and attachment in the romantic sense are finite resources. I'm fairly confident that they are, although like I said, I'm willing to be charitable and state that other people could plausibly not feel the same.
I can promise, without a shred of doubt, that me screwing someone else would be a result of a diminished love for my wife and would result in that love further diminishing. This is pretty hard-wired. I don't have any desire to sleep with other people - I'm pretty naturally monogamous.
If you're incapable of understanding that different humans are wired differently (and that my wiring is much more common), I'm kind of skeptical of your capacity for empathy. Which, really, might explain the lack of attachment to monogamy - promiscuity and sociopathy are linked. This is, of course, pretty uncharitable, but also a pretty stark reality and one of the reasons why I wouldn't be inclined to marry someone that's highly promiscuous.
Sociopathy is linked to self destructive behavior, which promiscuity often is. There is no doubt about that.
The notion that your "wiring" is much more common is really just untrue. It's not backed up by anthropology, or just the simple rates of cheating we see regularly.
While I'm happy to accept many people are geared towards monogamy, my concern is why it is important to you that the OTHER person is monogamous. If the way YOU feel is that you don't want to sleep with anyone else, bully for you, and I am aware of multiple couples where one partner is monogamous and the other is not. My issue is the amount of concern with what the OTHER person does, the need to control the person. Again, I see no reason other than bruised egos.
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What does trust have to do with anything. I've never had an open relationship that didn't involve trust. There are rules. There are things you aren't supposed to do. It's not a free-for-all. For example, a standing rule in all of my relationships has always been that you have to be honest about all of your sexual encounters. They can't be secret or hidden. That is cheating.
"stop puting you idiotic liberal words into my mouth"
-ynnady
"stop puting you idiotic liberal words into my mouth"
-ynnady
For example, I really do prefer sex without a condom over sex with a condom. In an open relationship that is essentially impossible, as it would significantly increase the risk of STDs. Being monogamous in a relationship doesn't eliminate the chance, but it does reduce it.
Furthermore I have a different interpretation of the meaning of physical intimacy and how it relates to emotional intimacy than you do. Your problem here is that you are projecting your personal perceptions and feelings onto others and acting like how others interpret intimacy is somehow..."wrong".
Specifically you seem to have an issue with the expectation of mutual exclusivity being interpreted as emotional intimacy.
Last edited by Mihalik; 2016-10-23 at 04:57 PM.
I imagine the STD risk is pretty high considering what goes on in porn these days with people sticking things into other people then sticking them in their mouth then into other people and worse.