this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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I personally am in a phenomenally stable polyamorous relationship. I've been married to my wife for 12 years, and she has had the same boyfriend for about half of that time. It's a really fulfilling arrangement for all of us in various ways. We're all genuinely happy and satisfied. I'm kind of casually looking for a boyfriend of my own.

But I feel like I only hear negative stories about other poly experiences. It's always unstable people and situations. It's always two out of three people happy at most. Surely there are other success stories out there, and I just hear the disasters because they're more memorable and fun to tell. Does anyone else have or know a polyamory success story?

EDIT: This blew up a little while I was asleep. I promise I'm at least reading every comment.

EDIT 2.0: ngl I did not expect the trope of polyamory to fix a struggling relationship would be so real. We did just the opposite and are both baffled. Don't use volitility to fight the volitility.

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[–] LadyLikesSpiders@lemmy.ml 35 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I'm monogamous myself, but personally know two different polyamorous relationships. 1 is pretty damn good, and the other is rife with drama. Besides that, I tangentially know of others, and all of those are rough, though since I'm hearing of these from mutual friends and acquaintances, I could just be getting the juicy drama and none of the good parts. Could very well be that my info on those are bad

It does seem to mirror the general expectation, though, that most are unstable, and I wouldn't call it surprising. Relationships are complicated, and anything that has more moving parts is going to be more complicated. I'm not trying to suggest here that monogamy is the way to go by any means--different people have different wants and needs, and some people are just good for polyamory. I just think that a working arrangement like this is tough to pull off

Besides, this gets asked a lot about polyamorous relationships, but there are so many fucked heteronormative relationships, and you never see the argument that monogamy is wrong, so yeah. Just whatever makes you happy

[–] TheDoozer@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Most of the heteronormative relationships I've known of or experienced were rife with drama and problems, so I would assume poly relationships would be, too. Even if the rate is the same, you'll be at least twice as likely to end up with a shitty relationship in a poly relationship (with at least one partner), right?

Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with poly relationships, only that there's plenty wrong with people.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Yeah you can hold a bad traditional relationship together with duct tape and societal expectations indefinitely. You shouldn’t but there’s no kaboom or juicy details. Polyamory has more room for the failure to be catastrophic instead of a slow long decay to a couple snidely commenting on each other in a retirement home.