Dealing With Differences

In interhuman relationships of any type, differences always arise. That’s just inevitable. People have a hard time getting along with the insides of their own minds, let alone the inside of another person’s mind. With all of our vastly different upbringings considered, it’s a miracle that we ever manage to get together with someone else and establish some kind of romantic partnership. In response to the inevitable differences that will arise in your casual relationships, here are four key tips on how to react optimally.

How to deal with differences — be open-minded

In dealing with differences in any sort of relationship, we must always remember to be open-minded, and embrace the notion that, at the end of the day, our view might just be the wrong one. It takes two people to form a casual relationship, after all, and both those people have completely different thought patterns and upbringings. More importantly, neither of those people can claim to be definitively right about anything in life. We are all lost beings making our way through uncharted territory, and everything we think we know is just an opinion. Just because you feel strongly about your side of the argument in the relationship, keep in mind that you are just a lost, evolved ape at the end of the day, and you just might be wrong about something.

Communicate to solve relationship conflict

All relationship conflict is solved by open communication, at least in most cases. The basic root of every issue in a relationship is the failure on both partners to fully communicate their emotions. If emotions are not eventually released from within, they end up morphing into truly ugly sentiments. Do yourself and your partner a favor by speaking up when you feel upset at something. More often than not, the things that upset us are incredibly trivial, and once laid out in the open, we see that they are really not worth the worry. However, if our angry or bitter emotions are kept inside, we soon come to see that the initial problem that resulted in us being upset has turned into a huge, amorphous blob full of unfounded issues. Avoid the blob in its entirety, and make your partner aware of how you’re feeling through each stage of your relationship.

Casual sex relationships take work

Just because casual sex relationships generated from adult hookup websites are so casual, does not mean that you can approach them without any effort and expect them to turn out alright. The truth is that casual relationships, though simple on the surface, hold a lot of complicated content deep within. Although both you and your casual partner are at the same stage in life where you wish to have sexual partners on a casual basis, the paths that each of you took to arrive to that point are vastly different, and your separate histories will inevitably affect the way you take in the relationship. If you approach a casual sex relationship with a relaxed, laid-back mindset, you’re setting yourself up for all assortments of truly nasty surprises, probably in the form of awkward heartbreak. However, if you approach a casual sex relationship as something beautiful yet fragile, that requires some attention and maintenance, then you’ll see how truly beneficial this sort of commitment can be.

A serious relationship is a full-time job

While casual relationships require a good amount of work in order to be maintained, serious relationships are whole careers in comparison. Maintaining and nourishing a serious relationship is a specialty field, and only you know how to be with your particular partner. If you care about the future of your relationship, you’ll take great care to ensure that your partner is totally happy, and in turn, they will take great care to ensure that you are totally happy. A relationship is a self-sustaining mechanism if both members of the partnership are putting in their work to help it flourish.

Introducing her to your loved ones — wait for the right time

It might be tempting for someone who finds themselves in the crossroads of a casual and serious relationship to try to introduce their partner to their parents, in order to transition into the next, more serious stage of the relationship. Although introducing her to your loved ones is an admirable step, and it signifies a pretty significant commitment, we suggest that you avoid jumping into that venture too soon, without the necessary amount of forethought. If you’re introducing her to your parents because that’s something you genuinely want to do, then that’s fine. But if you’re thinking of doing so because you believe it would be a helpful band-aid on your wounded relationship, then maybe you should wait things out and see how they unravel.