re: Is an open marriage a sign of strength or weakness in your relationship?

Insecurity

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let her know you think other women are hot

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This is a bad idea no matter which way you put it

Call it what you want but the few married couples I know that have tried open relationships or threesomes have crumbled badly. IMO it only works with older wealthy dude with younger wife and its as much of a financial arrangement as it is a marriage.

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It's just two people acknowledging they cheat on each other. It's just a formal way of cheating.

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I hear what you're trying to say, but framing it as "cheating" is a little misleading

It's not cheating if both parties are well aware of/condoning it. It's another kind of thing entirely.

Greater weirdness factor than your garden variety cheating

The fact is that over 50% of the time monogamous relationships don't work. If your wife wants strange D, she's going to get it regardless of whether or not you "approve" of it. Same goes for any man that wants strange. An open relationship allows both spouses to have that experience but most people are waaaaaay too insecure to go there. This is one of the reasons the divorce rate is so high. People, especially men, think that they lock the pussy in for themselves only when they put a ring on it and based on most marriage vows that's the way it should be. Unfortunately people often make promises they don't keep.

It's a sign that one of the partners intends to get over on the other with this BS. The one suggesting such doesn't love the other any longer but is too much of a coward to end it. Get a divorce

In a way, it's kind of like doctors admitting that a small degree of cigarette smoking isn't that bad for you - it may be true but it still sends the wrong message.

This sounded right in my head anyway.

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The fact is that over 50% of the time monogamous relationships don't work.

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The divorce rate for open marriages runs about 90%+

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Steve Brody, Ph.D., a psychologist in Cambria, California, explains that less than 1 percent of married people are in open marriages. Some research suggests that open marriage has a 92 percent failure rate.” (3) So not only do very few people engage in open/polyamorous marriages, 92% of those marriages fail. That’s double the current divorce rate for monogamous, heterosexual marriages.

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