Open Relationships and Poly Dating: 3 Tips

Samantha Elise Oscar By Samantha Elise Oscar  – July 28, 2017
Open Relationships and Poly Dating: 3 Tips

Looking for the best poly dating sites? We love Adult Friend Finder, ALT.com, and Ashley Madison. In our day and age, love relationships are continuing to grow and change. We’re going to look at how to succeed in these two types of modern relationships: polyamory and the open relationship. Keep reading to learn our top dating tips for polyamorous and open relationships.

Poly Dating and Open Relationships

So, what are open relationships? An open relationship is one where one or both of its members have relationships with people outside the relationship, but still remain romantically committed to each other. And what does polyamorous mean? In a polyamorous relationship, the members have many lovers whom they may be physically and emotionally engaged with at any one time.

So, what’s the difference between polyamory and open relationships? Sometimes it seems like there’s a pretty slim distinction between the two. Some consider a polyamorous relationship one which involves multiple loving, consensual relationships. But it doesn’t necessarily imply an open relationship. Keep reading to discover how to succeed with either type of relationship.

1. Not for Everyone

Both polyamory and open relationships fall under the umbrella of sociosexuality. This is defined as the willingness to engage in uncommitted sex relations. Sociosexuality is considered a sexual orientation, just like gay, straight, or bi are sexual orientations. People who are sociosexual may find it hard to get the right partner(s). This may stem from the fact that they don’t acknowledge, define, and ask for a sociosexual relationship early enough in their dating history. If you’re sociosexual and don’t know what you need in a relationship, you may end up cheating and causing harm.

For a non-sociosexual, it can be impossible to accept polyamory or an open relationship. People who are in open relationships can get rejected by non-sociosexual individuals if they bring up the concept on a date. In general, these two sexual orientations will have a hard time getting their needs met in relationships with each other. Still, in some rare cases, a sociosexual can eventually convince their initially non-sociosexual partners to try sociosexuality after years of a committed relationship.

2. Tell the Truth

Don’t use polyamory as a way to transition out of a committed relationship. If you think you may be sociosexual and need to be in a relationship with more than one person, the best path is to tell the truth. You may cause some hurt now. But trust us, it will be less than if your partner catches you cheating. In any relationship, trust gets broken when a partner decides to do something outside the bounds of the relationship before discussing it. No relationship can work without communication and trust. So tell the truth and ask for what you need. It’s always the best policy.

3. Make Friends

Our last suggestion? Make friends! Most open and poly relationships that work are made up of people who are friendly. This means the partners who are not sleeping with each other get along and are friendly with one another. For instance, pretend there’s a married woman in an open marriage who starts a new relationship with a man. She, her husband, and her new partner will all be happiest is the two men are on good terms with one another or become friends. In this situation, the partners who aren’t involved sexually can be the ones who keep the group together.

We hope this article helped you learn the best ways to succeed in polyamory and open relationships. Want to get started with poly dating or open relationships? Click to learn more or see our top polyamory dating sites now.

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Samantha Elise Oscar
Samantha Elise Oscar
Author, Dating Expert Extraordinare
At DatingPerfect, we’re lucky to have Samantha as a regular contributor and key researcher. A dating expert at her core, Samantha’s knowledge of the dating space spans many provocative topics, from marriage tips to sugar dating how-to’s. Samantha has her finger on the online dating pulse and keeps us plugged in to dating’s newest trends, most surprising twists, and biggest stories. Is there a topic you’d love to see Samantha cover? Please contact us if you have an idea for a future story and we’ll get Samantha on it. Thanks for reading!
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