Keeping your relationship and your fun
How much to share with your partner
What’s the best thing about Wednesdays?
Another dose of Life Intelligence, of course!
First, last week’s post sure stirred up some interesting feedback, which was basically grouped into two categories—those who agreed and those who felt defensive. Oh, my! Also, interestingly, a fellow writer picked up and quoted it in his What Peeves You? post. He also quoted a few other publications with diverse perspectives on various things. I’d check it out if I were you. Consider it “reading anthropology.”
Also, really cool, one of my readers sent off six gift subscriptions to her friends!!!! When I saw this, I just about cried! So much looooooveeee! Wanna make me cry, too? Subscribe to Life Intelligence.
Onward to today’s article…
Single people have it easy. We don’t have to negotiate our wants and decisions for what to do and how much time to spend doing it with anyone. But about 69% of Americans report that they are married (51%), living with a partner (11%), or in some other form of a committed romantic relationship (8%), as per Pew Research this last February. How many of them wish they had a different partner is another story. But let’s assume they all want to keep their relationships. Still, where availability meets opportunity, people suddenly entertain the idea of playing with someone else.
Some play is just an innocent friendship between people who click somehow. Think of co-workers and friends you meet in hobby clubs, or wherever you go to enjoy a specific interest, your partner doesn’t care for. They can be same-sex or opposite-sex, and it doesn’t matter which way you swing. These fun and close friendships, although fulfilling and important, don’t cross any relationship red lines. On the other side of the spectrum, we find full-blown affairs with all the juicy details and possibly dramatic consequences.
But so much of what happens is in the gray area between those two ends of the spectrum, and people find themselves bewildered, excited, confused, and questioning what they should do. Should they tell or not tell their partner? How much to share? Is the person or friendship in question appropriate or inappropriate?