Negative Experiences: Teenage Open Relationships?

See your other question, jealousy does not bring out the best in people.

Edit: I hope that didn’t sound harsh, sorry. I have no personal experience with open relationships, but I do imagine you need to be very honest, communicative and completely comfortable with your decision. No matter how mature teenagers think of themselves, I find it hard to believe they possess the qualities.

I feel like teenagers tend to take things too seriously. They claim to want an open relationship, but then cannot take the emotional trauma when one person gets more involved than the other.

From my understanding of open relationships, it is incredibly important for participants to be confident, have a sure sense of themselves and their needs, and be great communicators. How many teenagers do you think that describes?

Lol, not too many…

One of my best friends was in an open relationship and loved it. I guess it was perfect for him because he was a man whore but loved talking and hanging out with his girlfriend, and she was just glad to have a boyfriend so she didn’t care.

no experience, but I would imagine that unless everyone involved is celibate (hah), open relationships in horny teenagers are awfully dangerous.

“I’m writing a paper about teenagers in open relationships,”

I do not see teenagers having the maturity to properly understand and emotionally navigate a truly “open relationship.”

I have no experience with open relationships either… I just know that I couldn’t handle one personally. I think it would drive me insane.

@zephyr826 hit it right on the head. They can’t handle not being the only person involved with someone. It’s a confidence killer.

The first argument that immediately pops into my mind is that teenagers are full of hormones. Often this means lots of physical interaction in their relationships. Teens are already at risk for pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and STDs. This is because most teens do not have their own doctors they can talk to, do not have appropriate sex-education,etc.. Open relationships just increase the number of partners they are with thus increasing their risk towards all listed above. And you do not have to be having ‘sex’ to get all of what is listed above either (some yes, some no).

A second reason is that teens are so lead by their emotions instead of their reasoning ability (which isn’t actually developed fully until the 20s). They may be making unwise choices purely on what is ‘cool’ or ‘peer pressure’ or other inappropriate reasons.

A third reason is that teens are cruel. There is a lot of jealously, a lot of fighting and name-calling, a lot of a the feeling of invincibility. It is hard for adults to manage the pressure of open relationships. Teens deal with drama every day of their lives and this would seem to create a lot more of that drama. That is more stress and possibly more physical fighting.

Is it weird of me to think of the following scenario.

Boy: Oh come on, girl #1 doesn’t make me wear a condom, maybe I should go to her.
At which point girl #2 caves in and says: Fine, let’s get it over with.
Conclusion: teenage pregnancy, std’s.. Am I overreacting?

Not weird, lol… A guy tried to have sex with me and was proposing the idea. He said “It’d be ok. I did it with my last girlfriend.” I said…“No thanks”

Also, I know umm… five people from my high school that got pregnant, or either got their girlfriends pregnant… None of them were in open relationships, but one of them was a semi-sex addict…

I don’t want to make assumptions about teenagers but I’ve had one open relationship as a teenager and as an adult – the latter is fairing much better than the former

@RedPowerLady said just about everything I was going to say.

I will add that teens are just starting to get their feet wet in relationship territory. Learning to handle one relationship maturely is enough of a challenge and, honestly, is where people should start off even if they end up in an open relationship later in life. Walk before you run, so to speak.