By Rosie Munger for BounceBack.com
"…the only relationship that can make both partners happy is one in which sentimentality has no place and neither partner makes any claim on the life and freedom of the other. "
- Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
We all know that mutual respect and clear ground rules are as essential to a "friends with benefits" relationship as physical chemistry. Even in the most fun, straight-forward scenarios, one or both of the parties run the risk of developing deeper feelings and getting hurt - this is not earth-shattering news. Yet there is another risk, perhaps an even greater one: do these "erotic friendships," as Kundera's Tomas called them, keep us from finding more significant relationships?
Related: Have You Been Dating In Isolation?
When I posed this question to some friends, I expected a pretty resounding, "Yes!" I was sure that my friends who had been in these situations would share with me that they missed out on finding more
Blog Posts by BounceBack
Do Sleepover Friends Prevent a Real Relationship? When Friends with Benefits isn’t Beneficial at All
By BounceBack | Love + Sex – Tue, Oct 25, 2011 5:54 PM EDTBy Rosie Munger for BounceBack.com
Related: Have You Been Dating In Isolation?
Related: 3 Simple Rules for Winning the Multi-Player Dating Game
Related: Why Is "Hard to Get" So Hard? Why We Love and Hate the Dating Chase
Related: 5 Common Dating Mistakes You Don't Know You're MakingRelated: Don't Lose Yourself in Loving Him: 3 Must-Dos
Related: He's Just Not That Into You...Or Is He?BounceBack.com helps people find happiness after heartbreak. Like us on Facebook
More Articles on BounceBack.com:
Should You Confess to Cheating? 3 Key Questions to Ask Yourself
Do Men Have a Type? 6 Types of Women Men Adore...and Avoid
Top 10 Disasters from Temporary Marriage Licenses
5 Dating Don'ts Learned From Your Cable Company
Change Your Relationship Patterns for the Better
Is Your Mate's Single Friend Ruining Your Relationship?
Should You Stay Or Should You Go? 5 Questions to Ask
Don't Date a Douchbag: 8 Red Flags
Read More »from LINKS OCTOBER NOVEMBER
Should You Confess to Cheating? 3 Key Questions to Ask Yourself First
By BounceBack | Love + Sex – Wed, Oct 19, 2011 11:02 PM EDT
By Elliot Yoo, BounceBack.com Editorial Staff
As if relationships weren't tricky enough in themselves, sometimes we make them even harder. Cheating is not something that is reserved strictly for playboys and promiscuous women who make a sport of it. Oftentimes it can happen a lot more innocently and unexpectedly than one would think.Related: Change Your Relationship Patterns for the Better
Whatever the reason it happens, the morning after can bring about a lot of harrowing realizations and questions. "What do I tell my boyfriend/girlfriend?"
Related: 5 Common Dating Mistakes You Don't Know You're MakingFiguring out whether to confess or not is a difficult decision to make, and in the small window of time you have to figure this out, there are some key questions you need to ask yourself:
Is your partner going to find out?
This is the first rule above all others for a reason. This is because if the answer to this question is "yes" or even potentially "yes", then you are
Read More »from Should You Confess to Cheating? 3 Key Questions to Ask Yourself First
By Sarah Rae, BounceBack.com
Last time you ran into a friend did they immediately say, "It's been so long!"? Do you even remember which night is girls' night with your friends anymore? When you've found new love, it's perfectly understandable. You're spending your time getting to know your new partner. You made dinner for him last night. He took you apple picking last weekend. But when your social life begins to seem like a distant memory, you have to wonder if you've gone overboard.Related: Change Your Relationship Patterns for the Better
How do you know if you're dating in isolation?
• Last time you went to see friends, you discovered they had a new hangout. Maybe they have different jobs, new cars, or moved to a new apartment. If that's the case, it really has been too long since you've seen them.
• Have you missed or forgotten your friends' birthdays or other special events? You may have given up a ticket to a concert or missed an exhibition. When you start missing the Read More »from Have You Been Dating In Isolation?The Top 10 Potential Disasters from Temporary Marriage Licenses
By BounceBack | Love + Sex – Thu, Oct 13, 2011 1:32 AM EDT
By Sarah Rae, BounceBack.com Editorial Staff
In the past few weeks, everyone's been talking about Mexico City proposing a new reform to ease high divorce rates: slapping an expiration date on marriage. Instead of til death do us part, the minimum marriage contract would allow couples to renew or part ways after only 2 years. These temporary marriage licenses would include prenuptial agreements sparing couples from messy legal battles over assets and child custody. But have lawmakers really thought this through? Does renewing the marriage contract mean the legalese stays the same? Is temporary marriage just going to create a new kind of disaster?
Here are 10 potential disasters we forecast will accompany the temporary marriage license:
1. "He asked me to marry him on the beach in Maui, and I said yes. Then he said just a temporary marriage." Are you starting off on the wrong foot, or should we say, semi-cold feet?
Related: Getting to "Exclusive": Who Makes the Call?
Read More »from The Top 10 Potential Disasters from Temporary Marriage Licenses5 Dating Don’ts Learned From...Your Cable Company??
By BounceBack | Love + Sex – Wed, Oct 5, 2011 6:50 PM EDT
By Rosie Munger, BounceBack.com Editorial Staff
1. Don't chat with little intention of doing anything.If you have ever opted for the chat function instead of calling your cable company because you thought it would be easier and faster, you probably realized quickly that it was a mistake. Kind of like online dating, at first you're really not sure if it's keyword-generated text or an actual person. Have you ever received those generic emails some people send out to everyone fitting their search parameters? It feels a bit like that. Even when you do realize that it is, in fact, a person on the other end, your patience for platitudes will have already dwindled. Everything seems to take longer on chat, but guess what? Most issues can't be resolved by chat. After all of that, you may have to call in anyway.
Read More »from 5 Dating Don’ts Learned From...Your Cable Company??
Now, don't think for a second that once they know your issues they don't know that it might be something that has to be resolved over the phone. Yet, do they tell you? No. They6 Steps to Get Over Break-Up Guilt...When YOU'RE the One Who Calls It Quits
By BounceBack | Love + Sex – Wed, Oct 5, 2011 6:20 PM EDT
By Sarah Rae, BounceBack.com Editorial Staff
When you're the one who calls it quits, no one ever prepares you for the guilt. They assume it's what you wanted, so you're probably feeling a lot better now that you're apart. But there are always mixed emotions: Should I have given it more time? Was I fair? Did I just waste their time these last few months? Now you have a great deal of time to yourself, and, instead of cutting loose, you get bogged down by the past. You mull over things you could have done differently, things you let fester, or things you never should have let happen in the first place. The ex can trump up your guilt with just a look, whether they mean to do it or not.
Related: Do "Breaks" Always Lead to "Break-UPs"?The problem isn't that you feel guilty, it's that guilt can tear you down. The whole point of breaking up was to regain your happiness. So how do you proceed forward if you're still surrounded by this negativity? Follow these 6 steps:
1. First, you
Read More »from 6 Steps to Get Over Break-Up Guilt...When YOU'RE the One Who Calls It Quits
By Amanda Russell, BounceBack.com Fitness and Lifestyle Expert
A lot of things are tough about a breakup, but there is no question we tend to feel it hit home more during our downtime, and for most of us that means weekends. Our 'off' time is when we tend to rely on that 'other person' to do things with, so when that person is no longer there, we get that pang of loneliness and it's easy to let the sadness set in.
More from BounceBack: Feeling Down About Being Yourself? 7 Things You Should Never Apologize For
However, you must keep in mind that you broke up for a reason. If both people aren't 100% all in, you both deserve more, and it's best to part ways, and use your down time to keep busy and explore new and exciting things. Below is a list of my top 5 activities to do on weekends when you're on your own:
1. Exercise: Ok, I know you are seeing a theme here, and yes, I'm a bit biased when it comes to physical fitness, but there is just no better way to
Read More »from Top 5 Post-Breakup Weekend Activities
By Sarah Rae, BounceBack.com Editorial Staff
No, we don't mean your live-in partner. We mean your non-romantic roommate. Whether they were an old friend from college or someone you found on a bulletin board at a coffee shop, once you start cohabitating the problems you face can feel just like dating. You find yourself sitting down to dinner with friends and all you can talk about is how you can't stand your roommate any longer. You've come to the end of your rope. You just can't live with this person anymore.
Maybe it's the mysterious globs they leave on bowls in the sink. Maybe you can't stand the fact that they bring strangers home to play Wii at 2am on a Wednesday morning. Maybe the roommate was fine until you met her boyfriend, the one who rarely wears pants and uses your toothbrush. It can even go much deeper than this. Maybe they took a new job, made some new friends, and they just aren't the same person you moved in with. You find you've grown apart.
Related: Feeling DownRead More »from Breaking Up With Your... Roommate?!?Are You Expecting Too Much in Dating?
By BounceBack | Author Blog Posts – Wed, Sep 28, 2011 3:06 AM EDT
By Laura Yarborough, BounceBack.com Editorial Staff
Dating can be one of the most fun yet frustrating activities to engage in, because we always want to make the right choice. So, we pull out a checklist of dislikes and likes from the very start, hoping that we've met the right person. This checklist usually reads "I want...", "I need...," "I expect..." or "I won't..." and usually doesn't take the current circumstances into play at all.
Doesn't this sound a bit self-centered? Is it unrealistic to have high expectations?
Related: Do Unrealistic Deal Breakers Hurt Our Dating Odds?
Read More »from Are You Expecting Too Much in Dating?
Imagine how a person may feel about not meeting up to your standards. Probably the exact same way you felt when someone else told you that you were not good enough. The truth is we all have expectations when starting new relationship, but realistically, others will probably fail to meet all of them.
Yes, it is reasonable to expect certain things in life, but where do you draw the line?
