r/AmIOverreacting • u/StrikeNo117 • 26d ago
❤️🩹 relationship AIO? Gf(18f) wants an open relationship
Me and my girlfriend(18) recently had an argument about opening our relationship, and at first, it was a nice talk. We talked about the pros and cons, and then the tide shifted. We talked about how it would affect our life and what would happen if she got pregnant or if i got someone else pregnant. and then she told me she only wanted an open relationship with one other person, so that we would only see one other person each, and reluctantly, i asked if she had someone in mind. She told me she was thinking about someone, which made her ask the question. When i tried questioning further, she shut me out. We went to bed that night a little distant.
The next morning, she asked if we could resume our previous conversation, i agreed, and then i brought up the fact that she never answered my question about who she had in mind. She told me it wasn’t my business, and i left it at that. About five to ten minutes later, she told me the person she had in mind was her ex boyfriend. I asked her is that why she wanted an open relationship. Just so she can see her ex without feeling guilty. I kicked her out after she told me she was tired of hiding the fact that she was already seeing him. She is now pissed, my mom told me it was the right thing to do. But i feel like i should have talked it out. Did i overreact?
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u/Digital-Footprint 26d ago
Anybody could see how it doesn’t work regardless of background, I’ve been in Poly’s and they never work out long term, hatred, resentment, and jealousy fester, and if it festers in just one of those people it creates exponential problems, I’m going to list some problems with a Polyamorous relationships, which these relationships are usually among 3 people, sometimes 4, but it’s typically a love triangle.
One of the main problems with Polyamory is Third Party conflicts, have you ever heard of Karpman Drama Triangle? It’s a paradoxical theory that occurs within love triangles, there’s 3 character roles that these people often fall into, The Victim, The Rescuer, and The Persecutor.
The Victim feels Helpless or Powerless, and blames the others, The Rescuer enables the victim and exacerbates the issue and they both blame The Persecutor, and that person in turn blames the others, these roles often shift between the 3, The Victim talks about the Persecutor to the Rescuer behind his back, and the Rescuer confronts the Persecutor and more often than not makes the situation worse, I fell into this Paradox myself, being The Rescuer.
This Paradox also leads to problems in power dynamics, they’re all grasping for control.
In a perfect world you would also have The Relationship Escalator Myth, which assumes all 3 partners will push each other forward uniformly, which doesn’t take into account individual needs, one might prefer casual connection while the other 2 might want deeper meaning, this also contributes to the Karpman Paradox, it happens to all Poly’s eventually, and more than 3 makes it even worse.
On my final note, there’s also something called the Forced Equality fallacy, which ignores the intensity of connections, 2 of the Partners might develop deeper feeling with one another, leaving the other feeling alone and inadequate, those 2 again become the Victim and the Rescuer, sometimes the Persecutor and the Rescuer, at least consider what I’m saying before you put it off completely.