It can be difficult. Communication is always the key in whatever relationship you’re in, but especially so in an open relationship. You need to be able to have a bit of a sense of humor about it too. I tease my boyfriend about his girlfriends and things like that, and he teases me about it. Without that sense of humor I think it just too touchy a subject. A bit of humor can also help you voice any issues you have, rather than just blurting it out. It can make it easier to talk about too. We’ve been pretty lucky. We haven’t had many problems or needed to change any rules or anything.

It can be very, very difficult for other lovers that come into your life though. That seems to be the biggest problem I’ve had… Most people are monogamous. I commend them on that, I really do. But it can be hard because they either feel that they’re doing something wrong by being with someone who’s already in a relationship because it’s ingrained into them that way, or they feel like I don’t actually care about them and things like that.

Another end of it, coming away from the relationship aspect, is outside perspective. I’ve had a lot of people call me a slut because of it. “She’s just a whore, she wants to sleep with everything that moves, she can’t be loyal,” blah blah blah. And that’s hard to deal with too. Most people don’t understand it, and if it doesn’t fit into their personal realm of knowledge, they have to tear it down. Yes, I enjoy sex, but that’s not what it’s about.

But, it all comes down to communication. If you’re in a relationship with two people, that applies to both of them. Most of my problems with being in an open relationship come down to how other people view it, how they feel about me being in one, and how they assume that it’s just because I want to sleep around, not the relationships themselves. That makes me pretty lucky, because I don’t really give a damn about what other people think. I hope that answers your question.