Quoted: Cheating is going beyond the mutually agreed upon rules of the relationship.
If your wife says you can go bang anyone except for redheads and she won't care, then you can screw Maryanne but you need to leave Ginger alone.
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Exactly. Others were getting at this indirectly with the "would you do it in front of the wife?" comments, but this is more correct.
If your wife is a conservative Amish woman who is offended by you staring at another woman's ankles, and you know that to be a condition of your relationship, then doing so is cheating.
If your wife takes you to strip clubs and buys you lap dances (or sends you to strip clubs with the guys with $200 for lap dances), then lap dances aren't cheating in your relationship.
Cheating is about BREAKING TRUST with regards to whatever boundries were set. The boundry line won't be the same, or even necessarily anywhere close, between different couples, but rarely does anyone not know where THEIR line is.
I could handle my GF hugging a guy and even a quick peck on the lips, in front of me or not, as long as it is done in such a way that it is clearly plutonic to everyone. EVERYONE knows the difference between a sexual kiss and a plutonic one.
At the same time, I could become upset by an email conversation she was having, even if the guy was in Outer Mongolia and they would never meet, if she was not being faithful IN HER HEART to the relationship.
It isn't always about physical contact, but usually about intention and how the person responds to others coming on to them.
I don't break the rules set by my relationships, and I end them if/when she does. No excuses, no second chances.
-Troy