Did You Know You Can Choose Your Relationship Style?
From Monogamous, to Non-Monogamous, and Everything in Between
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After spending the first 25 years of life knowing nothing outside of monogamy, followed by nearly a decade of non-monogamous exploration, I hope to impart one key thing: and that is that every relationship is valid, so long as you get to choose it. Yes, you read that correctly. The way a relationship looks and works is a choice that two people who love each other, get to make for themselves. No relationship norm is better or worse than any of the others, when you and your partner define it. How though, do you go about choosing a relationship type, and by extension have it supported by your family, friends, coworkers, and those you interact with in general?
In this article we are going to challenge the norm, by first acknowledging that relationships do not work if they are assumed, and let’s be real here, they are almost always assumed, especially for those of us 30 plus years of age (Oh how I envy this upcoming generation!). Next, we are going to take a look at what defining your relationship actually means, talk about some pitfalls, and explore how to take those first steps in talking about the relationship spectrum with those you care about. In short, this is an article to introduce that relationship types are a choice.
Relationship Types
First things first, let us look at just a few of the relationship types that exist.
While this list is in no way exhaustive, it illustrates that there is a lot of diversity out there. And whatever your knowledge base is for relationship diversity, this chart is aimed more toward warming up the brain so to speak. For example, did you even know that polyamory was a relationship style when you met your first love? I certainly did not. While the outcome of my first relationship probably wouldn’t have changed much, had we discussed diversity of relationships early on, I’m certain we would have been better equipped to talk about some of the outside flirtations that occurred. Suffice it to say though, these are all examples…
