Infidelity in Today's World

 Hello Everyone!

This week was great to learn about topics that seem to be more common each year. The topics that I learned about were pornography and infidelity. I have heard more in the past few years about people in my life who have found out about infidelity or pornography in their marriage. It is always so sad to hear about and honestly makes me nervous at times to take the step into marriage. Many stories I've heard talk about how marriage was good in the beginning and then infidelity crept in or pornography was introduced with one of the spouses. When we think about our world today, it isn't super surprising that infidelity and pornography are such big issues now. Most every movie or tv show has romance and those relationships often can start with one person being dishonest and starting a new relationship with another person. There are also relationships that often end and never show the positive aspects of becoming more serious in a relationship and progressing toward marriage. We also can see how inaccurate romance and sex are displayed in these shows. It is hard to have successful and honest relationships in our real lives when most people have an unhealthy comparison to examples from tv and movies. So this week I learned about the different ways that a partner can practice infidelity and I wanted to show share what I learned here. 

The first method of infidelity, that most people think of when they hear that word, is sexual. Sexual infidelity is when one partner in a marriage or relationship is sexually involved with another individual that is not in that relationship. There are many subcategories in this section as well. Fantasizing about another individual can also be considered sexual infidelity. Pornography would also be categorized under this area. 

The second method of infidelity is, emotional. Emotional infidelity from my understanding is when one partner is making an emotional connection with another individual that is prioritized or greater than that with their spouse or partner. This emotional connection can start very innocently with one person just wanting to have a friend or wanting to connect over similar interests. Sometimes that emotional connection between two people can be initiated by connecting over similar experiences with each other's spouses. When that emotional connection is made, it can often lead to that person prioritizing this individual over their spouse. This level of prioritization can often lead to physical infidelity between the two individuals. 

Finally, we discussed financial infidelity as the last major form of infidelity that can be found in today's world. Financial infidelity is often shown by one partner in a marriage or relationship not being honest with their financial partners. This can be shown by the individual lying about their spending, taking more money for themselves, and even having separate bank accounts for themselves. Now having their own bank account is not financial infidelity, but rather the use of that bank account to hide the partner's actions with their money. 

These forms of infidelity are common in today's world. So, what can we do to prevent this from happening? Boundaries are one of the best ways we can prevent infidelity from happening. When considering sexual and emotional infidelity, there are always connections made outside of the relationship. The boundaries we set with our spouse or partner early on in the relationship will help prevent those connections to be made with someone outside of the relationship. Have healthy conversations about who and what you can talk about outside of the relationship. With financial infidelity, I have learned that in a marriage it is important for the couple to have a joint bank account. If the members of the marriage share their financial patterns with each other then there will be a significant decrease in the probability of one partner lying or hiding their money to their spouse. In a marriage and even a relationship, the key is setting boundaries that each person agrees to and being honest with the other person. Maybe there is more to the story than what I have shared but these concepts are good starting points to be aware of when considering infidelity in relationships.