I need some relationship advice. I suggested 125% but my wife won’t budge from 10%. Is this normal? How did it go when you had this conversation with your romantic partner?

  • monko@lemmy.zip
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    6 months ago

    Sorry, I didn’t mean to poke at your anxieties! I was remarking on the arbitrary nature of the original post.

    While you’re probably right that Eliezer is open to dating poly people, the post in question definitely appears to take a monogamous stance—that is, the question of whether to exchange one person for another of “higher value.”

    Saying that you’re cool if

    one my partners meets someone else they want to date at least as much as me, they do

    is different from

    I’d trade up if I found somebody 10%/25%/125% better than you

    which is what the original post said.

    • HopeOfTheGunblade@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      My partners bring a lot to our relationships. I find it a lot harder to understand what they see in me.

      My sense is that he is talking about the modal relationship in our society, that is mono, and in which my understanding is that people often (I would say at least 10% of the time?) do in fact have the “trading up” nature. That being the case, I think it’s better for the participants in a relationship to be aware of that, and at what threshold to expect it? Having a moderately awkward discussion early on seems better than the heartbreak later.

      This is coming from a very ask / tell culture perspective. I’m autistic enough (diagnosed, not slang / common use) that guess culture / relationships as imperfect information games is a distinctly negative experience. I don’t find any “magic” in not considering bad outcomes or pretending that potential futures don’t exist (the “happily ever after” expectation) or in leaving things unsaid.