Do I Need to Find a New Boyfriend?

bagofhearts

New member
My polyamory is causing my mono boyfriend hurt and me guilt and confusion.

I told him right from the start that I will never be with just one person and he kept wanting to go forward with the relationship. Something I have noticed in dating mono men is that almost all of them think that they will be the one to change me or else they don't really believe that I will still want to be with other people after being with them. I think it's an ego thing. They are always shocked when the realize I meant what I said.

He did agree to have an "open relationship" which I naively thought meant I could still practice my polyamory. He meant that I could sleep with people but not date them. I told him I would be honest about everything because that's one of my rules. So he was mostly (but not completely) okay when I would let him know I had slept with someone. But when I went on a date with someone he was not okay with that at all. Which is when we realized we had a huge miscommunication. So I agreed to cancel the next date I had set up so we could figure this all out first. We have yet to figure it out.

So now my dilemma is I'm in love with this guy and he's in love with me but I am still polyamorous and will always want to keep having other people in my life. As more than just sex, too. Is there a way to work this out? Will I have to just cut my losses? Do mono guys ever really feel okay about their woman's polyamory? It is absolutely NOT an option for me to just "go mono". Believe me, I've tried, countless times, and it has NEVER worked. Also, I refuse to see people on the side and be dishonest about it. I cannot do that. I also cannot bear to keep hurting him! It causes me grief! I love him, but I can't change who I am! What are our options here, realistically?
 
I'm sorry. :( Sounds like limit reached.

  • You are not willing/able to change to monoshipping. You already know that does not work for you. Your setting is (polyamorous and polyshipping)
  • He has tried polyshipping for x time and finds it does not work for him. He has found is he not (monoamorous and polyshipping) in his preferred way of going. But (monoamorous and monoshipping) in his preferences for loving and relating.

You both love each other. But things do not line up so it can coexist well at this time. Basically could ask him if he is willing and able to continue... Or willing but not able? And having to digest that. Or you could decide to make the call if you see he is not able.

Perhaps the most loving thing you can do right now is accepting limit reached and becoming willing to release what does not work -- the relationship model? And perhaps considering a relationship model that could work for both -- friendship?

Galagirl
 
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Some mono people are just fine with their partners Polyamory.

I am the vee with a mono man on one end and a polyflexible man on the other who is not looking for any partners but myself. If someone were to fall into his life he would be open to having another partner. But I am Polyfi so I am not looking for anyone either so Murf has no worry of me looking. Butch was here first.
 
If you really want to try to make this work, take some time to see if it might be possible. Give him the opportunity to talk this through with you, learn about poly (www.morethantwo.com is a great 101 resource), and feel out his initial knee-jerk negative reaction. Maybe that strong negative reaction will always be there, and this is doomed. Or maybe it can soften with time.

Davis (see my signature line) was dead-set against poly when he first learned of it. He thought it was a bad idea and could only lead to heartbreak, and would never be for him. Well, it's still not for him -- he's mono to the core. But he's come to accept that it IS for me. We tried a serious, aiming-for-primary type relationship while I was also seriously involved with Gia. That attempt didn't work out, but for reasons that had nothing to do with poly. Now he and I are friends and secondary partners who love each other, and he's fully accepted my polyamorous heart. He actually told me a few months ago that he'd come to see poly in a much more accepting light, and that he wouldn't mind meeting my other bf some day (this despite the fact that we'd had some MAJOR friction over my decision to go barrier-less with that other bf, which had made me assume Davis might resent him).

It'll likely be a long road, and you need to prepare yourself for the fact that his feelings might be inflexible. But mono/poly relationships aren't impossible.
 
You are not hurting him! He is hurting himself by refusing to accept reality. This is something he needs to work out for himself - no amount of concessions and sacrifices you make for him will help if he simply only wants things his way. Shit, he should be grateful his gf is honest and not a bullshitter/game-player!

Just keep being true to yourself. He can either accept you for who you are and accept the parameters you want for your relationship... or not.
 
Thank you

Thank you all for your thoughtful, kind, honest and educated responses. Some new developments have occurred since I posted earlier.

my boyfriend obviously realized he can't deal with me even sleeping with other people so his new condition is that I can only sleep with someone if he can watch and also only if they have a woman he can sleep with in exchange. I find this unrealistic and unreasonable and do not accept these conditions and he is going to have to make the decision to love and accept me for who I am or leave me. If he chooses to stay he will continue to be hurt. I am frustrated right now and insulted by his increasing demands and feel that if he chooses to stay and gets hurt that it is no longer my fault because I have told him what I am capable of (which is polyamory and NOT monogamy) and he simply refuses to accept that. No matter how much I love him I can't change who I am. I am poly to the core, always have been and always will be. For better or worse. He knows I have tried monogamy many times previously and never once did it work. I love him but accept that he may not be able to deal with a poly girlfriend. He will have to decide that for himself. Believe me, if I could change, I would. Actually... No I wouldn't. :) I love who I am! Even though it makes relationships more complicated. And thank you to the person who said he should be glad I am honest!! This is how I feel. I feel I am being fair and realistic. I no longer feel I have any reason to feel guilty. Also, thank you to the person who said maybe we need to consider a different relationship model. I am going to suggest this to him this weekend. Because the current model is obviously not working!
 
Thank you all for your thoughtful, kind, honest and educated responses. Some new developments have occurred since I posted earlier.

my boyfriend obviously realized he can't deal with me even sleeping with other people so his new condition is that I can only sleep with someone if he can watch and also only if they have a woman he can sleep with in exchange.

I'm sorry, but I literally laughed out loud at that.

What are you, his pimp?

No, he just doesn't get it, does he?
 
I love him but accept that he may not be able to deal with a poly girlfriend.

*May* not be able to deal with it? You are clearly a glass-half-full personality because, to me, the writing is on the wall in three foot tall letters.
 
. . . his new condition is that I can only sleep with someone if he can watch and also only if they have a woman he can sleep with in exchange. I find this unrealistic and unreasonable . . .
If anyone I was involved with made a demand like that, I'd give him the boot so fast his head would spin. People are not commodities or bargaining chips and I find such a proposal so disrespectful that I could no longer look that person in the eye without feeling utterly and deeply disappointed. No, I would never tolerate that bullshit from anyone in my life. Someone with such a selfishly skewed outlook can take his dick and demands and stick them somewhere else far away from me!
 
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As badly and offensively as that condition is worded, it is not a NEW condition.

He's basically still saying -- "I am willing to participate in polysexual but not polyamorous models." He's been broadcasting that a while now by the sound of it.

I hope your talk over the weekend arrives at some kind of conflict resolution -- even if the solution means breaking up so both of you are free to be friends without all the UGH and both of you are free to date new people who are hopefully more compatible.

GL!

Galagirl
 
If anyone I was involved with made a demand like that, I'd give him the boot so fast his head would spin. People are not commodities or bargaining chips and I find such a proposal so disrespectful that I could no longer look that person in the eye without feeling utterly and deeply disappointed. No, I would never tolerate that bullshit from anyone in my life. Someone with such a selfishly skewed outlook can take his dick and demands and stick them somewhere else far away from me!

Wow, this hit me like a brick between the eyes.

Thank you for the reality check.
 
To balance things a bit, his request might make some sense from a monogamous point of view, and is a depressingly common starting place even for people who think they're trying to be poly (I don't consider it to actually be polyamory if you can't have a one on one relationship with anyone but your primary partner, but not everyone sets out with that mindset). From a poly POV his request is way messed up, but he's JUST beginning to consider these ideas, he presumably hasn't thought through all the ramifications of what he's asking.
 
He's basically still saying -- "I am willing to participate in polysexual but not polyamorous models." He's been broadcasting that a while now by the sound of it.

Thank you for calling that out for me.

You're right, that's exactly what he is willing to do. I did not see it that clearly before.

He got more comfortable with the whole poly thing this weekend and read some resources I pointed him to and was a bit enlightened, I could tell. He asked that he still be the primary focus, which I have no problem with at this point in time, but I told him that the day is going to come when I fall in love with someone in addition to him and he said he'll figure it out when we get there. He just asked if I could reserve weekends for him since we can't see each other during the week due to opposite work schedules, and for now that my time with others doesn't interfere with our weekends together. I was planning on having it that way, anyway. I did propose that we just stop this now and continue as friends or something else so that he doesn't continue to get hurt, but he didn't want to do that. We must be masochists to continue in this. But it's hard when you are having all that new relationship energy/high.

We shall see.
 
Willingness to learn, compromise, and express needs are all excellent signs. I continue to think that this will be difficult, but not necessarily impossible. A big test will be how he reacts the first time you actually do get involved with someone else.
 
Thank you for calling that out for me.

You're right, that's exactly what he is willing to do. I did not see it that clearly before.

He got more comfortable with the whole poly thing this weekend and read some resources I pointed him to and was a bit enlightened, I could tell. He asked that he still be the primary focus, which I have no problem with at this point in time, but I told him that the day is going to come when I fall in love with someone in addition to him and he said he'll figure it out when we get there. He just asked if I could reserve weekends for him since we can't see each other during the week due to opposite work schedules, and for now that my time with others doesn't interfere with our weekends together. I was planning on having it that way, anyway. I did propose that we just stop this now and continue as friends or something else so that he doesn't continue to get hurt, but he didn't want to do that. We must be masochists to continue in this. But it's hard when you are having all that new relationship energy/high.

We shall see.
Think you're asking for.trouble by promising that. Seriously. You're going to end up letting him down.
 
Think you're asking for.trouble by promising that. Seriously. You're going to end up letting him down.

My promising what? That my weekends will be for him only? And then I will let him down in the future when I find an additional person that I want to spend time on the weekends with?
 
Great example. Let me build on that: you meet someone who initially slots right into that schedule at first but then their situation changes and they are only available on weekends. You've already built a significant relationship with them that you want to maintain and that means you have to share your weekends.

But you know, it's other stuff too. Things that might not seem a big deal now or you can't imagine wanting to do or feel for anyone else crop up. When you make those kind of promises to someone to protect your relationship and then want to change them later, your partner can mistakenly assume your feelings for them have changed.
 
So your new partner would be told too bad so sad but you can't see me on weekends because my boyfriend comes first.

Who in their right mind would be ok with being told that your wants and needs don't matter?
 
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