More Power To You - RTOTD #841

Day 841

I gotta give respect to the poly people out there. No joke. I look around and I see it and all I can think of is "how do you find the fucking time?"

Maybe it's just who I am and how I'm wired. Not the jealousy thing. I do open like it's nobodies business at this point, but poly is something entirely different. Open is simple. Open is no different than being single whenever you're not with your partner. That's cool. You can meet someone, double check that it's cool with your partner, and hook up no different than if you're single. Except you're asking permission or you have blanket permission and you've gotta give a Cliff's Notes version of the encounter the next day.

Cool. That's easy. Hell, even someone that you hook up with from time to time for some casual fun isn't complicated. There's no emotional investment. Really, it's a friends with benefits separate from whatever your actual relationship is. That's all easy.

But poly is a whole different animal for me.

I don't have issues with it in theory but I know that it's not for me in practice. Simply for the time factor. I don't want to dedicate that much time to a 2nd or 3rd or 4th relationship. Sorry. But I can't. I don't know about you, but I only have 24 hours in my day and I've got a dog. And a house. And a job. And in between 9-10 hours a day at work and commuting, a bit of time to play with the dog, doing work around the house, laundry, eating and eventually finding a few hours to sleep, I don't know where the fuck you all get the time to have more than 1 relationship. Shit, I barely have time for the one I've got and sometimes that's even difficult to find enough time for.

Plus, I kinda like taking some time to just spend time with friends or ignore everyone and sit by myself and tune out while watching some TV or a movie.

So I gotta ask you all, how the fuck do you find the time? Is like 10 minutes every other day all you really gotta do? How do you schedule that shit in so that it's not taking up other time? Do you just give up most of your alone time? Or do you try to mix the friends and the significant other time together and fit your extra relationships in during the saved moments here and there?

Because I just don't see where I'd be finding the time. I wanna be able to have hobbies that I enjoy doing. I want to be able to spend time by myself. I want to take a few minutes to read a book or watch a tv show or get caught up on the 2 weeks worth of Under The Dome, Breaking Bad and whatever other shows have been stacking up and filling my DVR. I want to not feel stressed about having enough time to dedicated to relationship #2, 3 or 4 without eating into the time I normally would spend on relationship #1. Because jesus christ, all that shit already fills in 90% of my time without even adding in travel time or taking a shower or changing clothes.

So more power to you poly people. You all either have a lot less shit to do than me or seriously superior time management skills. So props to you all. Maybe that should be the next class one of you teaches at an event.

Time Management for Poly Relationships 101

I get 10% of the profits from the first book for giving you the idea. You're welcome.