Anonymous wrote:
Not sure why you are so defensive about the science behind the reality. But the reality is... men with no or little sex do NOT cheat more often than men with reasonable sex lives.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:PP, we agree that decent sex will NOT always prevent a man from cheating!! For the second time, that's not what I said.
I said the inverse: a marriage without much sex is 100 times more likely the man will be looking outside.
Understand?
No. In studies, a marriage without much sex is not 100 times more likely the man will cheat, not even 2 times more likely. In reality if you have 100 marriages, 50 with no sex and 50 with tons of sex ... still 60% of men cheat in both groups: 30 men with no sex and 30 men with tons of sex cheat.
Even if the studies are true, which I doubt - of the 30 men with no or little sex who cheated had a reasonable sex life, how many would cheat? The answer is less.
Again, not blaming OP. And of course, there are some men (and women) who have an amazing spouse and sex life and cheat anyway. And there are also amazing people who have great values who would be faithful but cheat because they have been abandoned. All anyone can say is that if you neglect your spouse it increases the chances of infidelity. It's not rocket science.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:One day in the future when we are all subjected to key loggers, GPS trackers and covert recordings of internet search histories, we will get over the fact that most people, at some point in their long marriages, have done something that would deeply hurt their partner if it was uncovered.
Put me in the willfully blind camp. If I were OP, I would evaluate the marriage, see if its something that is a net positive or negative and if its a positive, address the issue upfront and see if you can get back to your net-positive marriage. Sometimes, it seems better to be happy than to be right.
These are wise words.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:PP, we agree that decent sex will NOT always prevent a man from cheating!! For the second time, that's not what I said.
I said the inverse: a marriage without much sex is 100 times more likely the man will be looking outside.
Understand?
No. In studies, a marriage without much sex is not 100 times more likely the man will cheat, not even 2 times more likely. In reality if you have 100 marriages, 50 with no sex and 50 with tons of sex ... still 60% of men cheat in both groups: 30 men with no sex and 30 men with tons of sex cheat.
Anonymous wrote:PP, we agree that decent sex will NOT always prevent a man from cheating!! For the second time, that's not what I said.
I said the inverse: a marriage without much sex is 100 times more likely the man will be looking outside.
Understand?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I completely agree. The few times I cheated, my sex life with my wife was lacking. I was caught one time, I admitted what I had done. It took time, but my wife and I worked it out, with counseling and over several years. I would not cheat again, but I do not judge men when they do.Anonymous wrote:PP, we agree that decent sex will NOT always prevent a man from cheating!! For the second time, that's not what I said.
I said the inverse: a marriage without much sex is 100 times more likely the man will be looking outside.
Understand?
No one's asking you to judge or not. The question OP had seemed to be more about what she can do in this situation. And as a cheater, looking back at the times you cheated, what could you or your wife have done to keep you from acting out?
Anonymous wrote:I completely agree. The few times I cheated, my sex life with my wife was lacking. I was caught one time, I admitted what I had done. It took time, but my wife and I worked it out, with counseling and over several years. I would not cheat again, but I do not judge men when they do.Anonymous wrote:PP, we agree that decent sex will NOT always prevent a man from cheating!! For the second time, that's not what I said.
I said the inverse: a marriage without much sex is 100 times more likely the man will be looking outside.
Understand?
I completely agree. The few times I cheated, my sex life with my wife was lacking. I was caught one time, I admitted what I had done. It took time, but my wife and I worked it out, with counseling and over several years. I would not cheat again, but I do not judge men when they do.Anonymous wrote:PP, we agree that decent sex will NOT always prevent a man from cheating!! For the second time, that's not what I said.
I said the inverse: a marriage without much sex is 100 times more likely the man will be looking outside.
Understand?
Anonymous wrote:I just don't understand why people are telling OP to wait until he definitely cheats. Isn't the goal to confront before he cheats? Wouldn't it be way more difficult to reconcile after he has sex with someone?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:How is your sexlife? That is the most accurate measure of a man's happiness in a marriage.
Not at all true. Many victims of cheaters are puzzled by the cheating because the sex life has been good. Good sex life doesn't prevent cheating.
Nothing can ever completely prevent cheating. But sex is a powerful motivator for men.
Who do you think is more likely to use a cheating website: the man who is sexually satisfied at home, or the a man who (every single day) feels unloved and horny?
Not blaming OP, but she claimed shock over their "happy marriage" so this seems like a pertinent question - which she chose not to answer.
I don't know the percentage of people who cheat who are in sexless or boring sex marriages versus those that are not, but there are men with very active sex lives who cheat. My husband cheated even though we had sex around 4 times a week and I was very into it and willing to both experiment with what he wanted and ask for new things myself. It was not just some boring "duty" sex. I was completely perplexed by my husband's cheating because it meant he was actually having sex with two people on the same day (he had an affair with a coworker and they would get it on during work hours, and then he would come home and be with me - it makes me very repulsed), which seemed just nuts to me. His reason for the affair - the OW made him feel important. I guess he thought I failed at that, though he didn't tell me how he felt at the time.
But even if you aren't having the best sex ever, the solution is not to cheat. The solution is to talk to your spouse and figure out what the deal is and whether it's fixable. And sometimes you might just have to not have amazing sex for a period of time, like when kids are super small, etc. Personally, I was very not into sex from between when I was five or six months pregnant to several months after having a baby. I think it is reasonable for sex to dwindle during those times - they are intense and stressful. If you can't deal with that kind of timeframe, and getting your rocks off is more important than handling a temporary drought, I think that's a character flaw. I probably sound like a peach, but the complaining about not being able to have sex during that period of life really burns me.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:How is your sexlife? That is the most accurate measure of a man's happiness in a marriage.
Not at all true. Many victims of cheaters are puzzled by the cheating because the sex life has been good. Good sex life doesn't prevent cheating.
Nothing can ever completely prevent cheating. But sex is a powerful motivator for men.
Who do you think is more likely to use a cheating website: the man who is sexually satisfied at home, or the a man who (every single day) feels unloved and horny?
Not blaming OP, but she claimed shock over their "happy marriage" so this seems like a pertinent question - which she chose not to answer.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I just don't understand why people are telling OP to wait until he definitely cheats. Isn't the goal to confront before he cheats? Wouldn't it be way more difficult to reconcile after he has sex with someone?
It's better if she knows his intentions and character. Confronting him isn't going to solve everything and make him stop. Most likely, he'll just tell her some lame excuses and be better at hiding it.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:How is your sexlife? That is the most accurate measure of a man's happiness in a marriage.
Not at all true. Many victims of cheaters are puzzled by the cheating because the sex life has been good. Good sex life doesn't prevent cheating.
Anonymous wrote:I just don't understand why people are telling OP to wait until he definitely cheats. Isn't the goal to confront before he cheats? Wouldn't it be way more difficult to reconcile after he has sex with someone?