Navigating the tricky waters of affairs can be challenging especially when your affair partner wants to be friends.
This proposal can spark anxiety confusion and even fear within you as it begs the question – can such an arrangement even work?
Remaining friends with your ex affair partner might seem like a daunting complication—embroiling you in an ever-lasting comparison game a constant tug of war of approval and an incessant longing to restore a relationship that may breathe dramas and heartache.
Drawing boundaries with your affair partner could be a solution to avoid an ideally disastrous situation—a balance between maintaining civil contact for unavoidable circumstances like shared custody of children or work and severing emotional entanglement.
However is bridging the distance without stirring emotional turbulence even feasible?
Or would the navigation lead to a new maze of feelings—leaving you distracted alienated and torn up?
Keeping Affair Partner As A Friend
Many people contemplate “keeping affair partner as a friend” after the end of the affair. A married man may desire friendship on the grounds of the bond cultivated during the affair.
This situation often implies the ex-affair partner’s worth being evaluated on the convenience of association instead of romantic involvement.
The man chooses to terminate the affair highlighting the ex-affair partner’s need to focus on self-love and move past the entangled emotional affair. Nonetheless aspiring to retain friendship is often a gateway to reviving the affair covertly under the disguise of a normal friendship.
Such a strategy gets easier when his spouse’s suspicion subsides.
Reasons Not To Be Friends With Affair Partner
Resisting the temptation to be friends prevents the risk of falling back into a painful past.
It enables the ex-affair partner to seek out a healthy relationship unencumbered by the ghosts of the affair.
Retaining contact with the married man can complicate their healing process and delay their recovery.
Moreover the invigorated connection might rekindle the affair causing distress to the betrayed spouse and destabilizing the fractured marriage. Emotional affairs damage trust in a relationship and re-establishing that trust becomes impossible if the spouse suspects ongoing interaction with the affair partner.
Here are a few reasons not to maintain a friendship with the affair partner:
- Avoiding them assists both parties to heal faster.
- Focusing on rebuilding one’s self-esteem.
- Reducing susceptibility to manipulation and narcissistic tendencies.
- Maintaining distance enables the cheated spouse to recover as well.
- Prevents the reappearance of feelings and temptation to resume the affair.
Ending Affair Wanting To Be Friends
The end of an affair can bring about a complex array of emotions. From relief to regret from clarity to confusion and even desire to remain friends with your affair partner.
The situation becomes even more complicated when it’s the married man who was involved in the affair wants to retain a friendship. This decision usually leaves the ex-affair partner feeling extremely confused and hurt.
Keeping in mind the man’s decision to end the affair indicates that he has made a choice. A choice between his spouse and the ex-partner wherein unfortunately the ex-partner was found to be not worth it.
Such a scenario is a clear sign of the man’s unwillingness to take a step forward. Many use the excuse of friendship as a temporary way to keep the ex-partner lingering around.
Move On Love Yourself
Life after an affair is undoubtedly tough especially when the other person wants to maintain a relationship. It requires immense strength and self-love to finally break out from the cycle.
Facing the truth and accepting that they were just an affair partner is the first step in healing. Breaking all contact even if it seems cruel at the moment will allow you to focus on loving yourself.
If the man truly cared about his ex-partner the most loving thing he could do is allow her the freedom to move on and find a healthy relationship with someone who wouldn’t just leave them.
Even though it may seem hard initially block him from all modes of contact. This will help you realize your own worth and in the process become the better version of yourself.
Finally it’s important to remember not to settle for the crumbs of friendship thrown your way. You deserve a full-time committed healthy relationship.
Action | Reason |
---|---|
End all contact | Accelerates healing process |
Block him on all platforms | Removes constant reminder of the past |
Love Yourself | Raises self-esteem |
Luring Back Into Bed
Engaging in an affair can prove to be a disastrous choice which leads to a deep sense of betrayal and heartache. This is further magnified when the cheating partner who once was an affair partner suddenly expresses a desire to no longer continue the affair but instead to become friends.
Often this sudden desire to remain friends is nothing more than an attempt at luring back the ex-affair partner into bed. This is especially true in a situation where the faithful spouse is no longer suspicious or when the married man feels a need to focus his attention elsewhere.
It serves as a means for the unfaithful partner to keep the other person entangled and within reach.
Policies of no contact are usually the best direction to take. Still if the ex-affair partner finds themselves distracted by the constant reminder of an ended relationship breaking off all contact may be required.
It’s crucial for the ex-affair partner to recognize their own worth and ignore the lies and manipulation of a narcissist. It’s important to keep in mind that if the marriage was of real worth the cheating spouse would have focused on rebuilding it instead of juggling an affair on the side.
Remaining friends with the affair partner presents a significant hindrance in fully recovering and reinvesting into a healthy relationship with a faithful partner. Instead of being baited back into a cycle of affairs the ex-affair partner would do better to sever all ties with the cheater.
With time and patience they will start to truly heal from the emotional trauma and grow into a better version of themselves one with the strength to resist the temptations that once led them astray.