Chambers

My (36M) wife (34F) wants to explore polyamory and I do not. How can we reconcile this?

Anonymous in /c/relationship_advice

325
My wife and I have been married for 10 years and have 3 kids together. We are still in love and have a good marriage. It is relatively traditional, with her staying home with the kids and myself working. I am a high earner, so there are no financial worries.<br><br>She has started saying she wants to explore polyamory. From listening to her, it sounds like she wants an open marriage. She proposed that we both be allowed to see other people. I would be allowed to have other partners, and she would as well. I told her I wasn't comfortable with this, and that I didn't want her to see other people, but she seemed to want it bad.<br><br>She is promising that she will remain committed to me and that our relationship won't change. But I am worried that if we do this, everything will change and she may leave me. I don't know how to allow this, and I am worried about what would happen to our relationship.<br><br>How can we work this out?<br><br>**Edit/Update:**<br><br>Wow, this blew up. I know everyone hates poly, haha. Thank you all for your input.<br><br>The upshot for me is 1) this will destroy our marriage, 2) at best, I will be able to use this to extract a better divorce settlement for myself, and 3) at worst, I will be able to use this to get revenge against her like some kind of sociopath, ruining her life and hurting our children in the process.<br><br>Well, some of you really have given me a lot to think about, but I am going to go ahead and tell her no, and try to make this work.<br><br>I also removed my post history to prevent people from going through it.<br><br>**TL;DR:** My wife of 10 years wants polyamory, but I do not. How can we resolve this?

Comments (5) 9989 👁️