open relationships?

Look at it this way.
Swinging is playing Tennis Doubles.
Open relationship is playing Tennis Singles.
Same game, same tools (sometimes) but with different number of people.

With swinging together I did not mean two couples doing a foursome. Often two couples will meet, have a drink, and two go in one room and the other two in the other. Thus not playing "Doubles"
OR, you can rock up together at some swing club, get a partner and go do it, and then go back home with your actual marital partner. Both of these situations I classify as swinging, but the important thing is you did it together as a "night out". That is what I meant with together.

But sms'ing me at work letting me know you are going to shag some random person after work, is not swinging that is more "open relationship" because you are doing it alone.
 
There is still a difference between having an "open relationship" and swinging.

Swinging involves an activity where you do it together - Meeting a couple for drinks, chatting, and then having sex. Or going to a swingers club for the night and each getting his shag. Point is it is done together. And with people looking for the same, of whom many of them are also in relationships.

An open relationship on the other hand, it is more each person for himself. You organise your own date, at your own time wherever you like. It is not a "together" thing. Here the other person you hook up with can be anyone, even a single person (anyone meaning not like in the case of swinging, people who are there to swing).

I don't think the definitions are as easily defined and separated as that. I know many relationships were there are cross overs between those definitions. It again boils down to not being able to easily define and box things.
 
With swinging together I did not mean two couples doing a foursome. Often two couples will meet, have a drink, and two go in one room and the other two in the other. Thus not playing "Doubles"
OR, you can rock up together at some swing club, get a partner and go do it, and then go back home with your actual marital partner. Both of these situations I classify as swinging, but the important thing is you did it together as a "night out". That is what I meant with together.

But sms'ing me at work letting me know you are going to shag some random person after work, is not swinging that is more "open relationship" because you are doing it alone.

I see swinging as the same as a open relationship but with a different set of circumstances.
I agree with Lance. You are not able to define this as easily.
It is also very dificult to explan this to an outsider.
 
Open relationships can and do work, I have two friends (a couple) who have been in an open relationship for eight years and they're one of the happiest couples I know.
 
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