Dating has always been a confusing and complicated world. A recent trend that has emerged and began to gain more popularity in the world of dating is open relationships.

Open relationships are when both parties in the relationship agree to the possibility of seeing other people while still staying together. Some couples might feel that it is necessary to start an open relationship in order to explore feelings developed for other people and not feel the guilt of betraying the other person. They might also feel that this could be a liberating process, since they do not have to worry about being romantically attracted to others.

However, open relationships betray several of the fundamental aspects of maintaining any healthy relationship.

One of the most important facets of a romantic relationship is loyalty to the other person. Being able to support your partner through thick and thin fosters a healthy relationship.

When you agree to date someone, you are agreeing that you will be loyal solely to them. You are agreeing that you will not abandon them and start seeing other people when things get tough and the initial high from the beginning stages of the relationship has faded.

Even though the two parties in an open relationship disclose to each other who they are talking to or getting intimate with, they still are not being loyal to one another. Relationships are not all about what the individual wants. You are required to give things up for the good of the other person. After all, the entire basis of love is selflessly giving oneself to wish for the good of the other.

Therefore, being open to seeing other people while also saying you are dating someone else makes the relationship not only pointless, but dysfunctional and unhealthy.

Relationships are hard, and they require a lot of work and commitment from both parties. Part of that commitment is not seeing other people. This is done to see if that person would be fit for marriage.

The entire point of dating is to figure out if you are ready for marriage, even if you are not thinking about marrying the other person. You are trying to see if you can handle the far more burdensome responsibilities that come with the huge life decision of spending the rest of your life with one person.

When you get married, seeing other people would break the vows you made to your spouse.

When we, as a society, tolerate things such as open relationships that completely devalue the meaning of dating, we are creating a culture that abandons responsibility. Open relationships are a reflection of our collective fear of being tied down to one option and having all other paths closed for us.

We have become afraid of responsibility and of being loyal to anything, even in relationships. People who engage in this type of behavior are likely afraid of loyalty and instead of processing it in a healthy way with each other, they decide that seeing other people is the best way to feel more secure.

That’s not to say that people who have engaged in open relationships are bad people, of course they are not. Relationships are risky and scary but nothing is going to change that.

The world of dating is a big, scary and complicated place, but it gets even more difficult to deal with when you attempt to have a relationship dynamic where you are allowed to see other people.