First time posting on this site.
I have been married for 17 years and the last few years have been challenging. We really grew apart. In November my wife told me that she was leaving me. I begged her to stay and she did. Since then she confessed that she developed feelings for another man and was interested in us opening our marriage so that she can have some type of relationship with him. She claims that she loves me and wants to stay married to me but that she no longer feels any romantic feelings towards me. She wants the freedom to explore romantic emotions with this man and others.
The funny thing is that since confessing this to me, our relationship has grown closer than it ever has, more intimate and we have been having more passionate sex than we have had in many, many years. She claims that she feels closer to me because I am giving her freedom from what she felt was a constricting relationship. This confuses me.
I love my wife and I also still some type of romantic feelings for her. I want to stay in our marriage (we have three kids 14, 10, 8) but I would prefer monogamy. She told me that the only way she can stay married to me is to open things up a bit. I agreed to gift her 4x year overseas trip with freedom to do what she wants with this particular man and anyone else. As long as it is far away from me, from our home, I feel a bit safer about it.
Truth be told, I am uncomfortable about this and I wonder how this will impact our relationship moving forward. I feel pressured into this but at the same time, I dont want to end our marriage over this issue that may be temporary (wishful thinking?). But I am starting to resent her a bit and I am thinking about this all the time. Sex to me is more than a physical act and the idea that she will be experiencing emotional and physical intimacy with others is troubling to me.
If anyone has any experience with this or has anything constructive to say, I would appreciate hearing about it.
Thanks!
I have been married for 17 years and the last few years have been challenging. We really grew apart. In November my wife told me that she was leaving me. I begged her to stay and she did. Since then she confessed that she developed feelings for another man and was interested in us opening our marriage so that she can have some type of relationship with him. She claims that she loves me and wants to stay married to me but that she no longer feels any romantic feelings towards me. She wants the freedom to explore romantic emotions with this man and others.
The funny thing is that since confessing this to me, our relationship has grown closer than it ever has, more intimate and we have been having more passionate sex than we have had in many, many years. She claims that she feels closer to me because I am giving her freedom from what she felt was a constricting relationship. This confuses me.
I love my wife and I also still some type of romantic feelings for her. I want to stay in our marriage (we have three kids 14, 10, 8) but I would prefer monogamy. She told me that the only way she can stay married to me is to open things up a bit. I agreed to gift her 4x year overseas trip with freedom to do what she wants with this particular man and anyone else. As long as it is far away from me, from our home, I feel a bit safer about it.
Truth be told, I am uncomfortable about this and I wonder how this will impact our relationship moving forward. I feel pressured into this but at the same time, I dont want to end our marriage over this issue that may be temporary (wishful thinking?). But I am starting to resent her a bit and I am thinking about this all the time. Sex to me is more than a physical act and the idea that she will be experiencing emotional and physical intimacy with others is troubling to me.
If anyone has any experience with this or has anything constructive to say, I would appreciate hearing about it.
Thanks!