Open marriage?

[Happytofita]

Hello,

I have just read something about open marriage. It is a marriage in which the husband and wife agreed to have extramarital sex. I have never heard of such a thing. So, please correct me if I am wrong or tell me more details about it if you know any.

Thanks in advance.

[Jamie (K)]

This is a stupid idea that started in the US in the 1960s and is nearly dead now. The idea was that the husband and wife would agree to allow extramarital sex. Like many liberal ideas -- especially from that era -- it sounds great in theory, but in practice it's a big mess.

In the first place, usually only one partner wants extramarital sex (generally the husband), and the other one just agrees to it so that the marriage won't break up. This means the whole situation is torment for the spouse who would prefer a faithful marriage.

We have had 40 years to see the wreckage this idea has caused. It has led to countless divorces, pornography addictions, and confused, depressed children. Now we're seeing children who are teenagers or adults now find out that the person they thought was their father was not their real father, and they don't know who their father really is. (Often they figure this out when they test for their blood type in science class.) Sometimes the parents don't know who the father is either, because in the "open marriage" the mother may have had two or more sex partners around the time the child was conceived. By the time the child finds this out, the parents will have abandoned the whole idea of "open marriage", but they have the shame of facing a child who says, "How could you do this to me?!"

As I say, the idea has been nearly dead for decades, and it's rare even to hear the term now in America.

[Happytofita]

Hello,

That was very interesting. Thank you.