Mainstream newspaper: a married triad is the more conservative choice

The Globe and Mail

In a newspaper advice column that's out this morning, a stable triad to raise your children in comes across as the responsible, family-oriented polyamorous structure for a person to want, as opposed to a looser, more open poly arrangement.

The Globe and Mail is the leading national newspaper of Canada. Read on:

By CLAUDIA DEY [October 30, 2008]

A reader writes: I've been married with children for many mostly happy years. We have an understanding that we would be open to the idea of a group marriage.

As the years went on, and our dream partners never materialized, my husband began pushing for an open relationship. I gave in and he started seeing another woman. This dynamic was very unpleasant until, two years ago, his girlfriend and I fell in love, too.

Problem is, she has a long-term boyfriend who sleeps around. I'm worried about STDs. My husband and girlfriend want an open relationship; I want a lovingly closed triad and a stable home for our children.

If I concede, I imagine a life of stress. If I leave, my heart and theirs will break — and we have to consider the children, who love all three of us. Also, I don't have any right to ask my girlfriend to break up with her boyfriend as their relationship predates ours.

The advice column is named "Group Therapy," and it presents advice from readers themselves. The advice they give in the paper is remarkably thoughtful and well-considered. Read the whole thing.

It looks to me like an advice column that fell of out of a time machine from about 2020. This is how polyamory will be treated by mainstream culture then if we do our jobs now.

The online comments, on the other hand, are pretty 2008. Do chime in.

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