What Is Considered Cheating In A Relationship?

What is considered cheating in a relationship and what is it not? The core values of your partner and yourself will help navigate what is cheating and what is not. Different couples have different values, some consider flirting cheating and some will consider flirting not cheating, within a boundary point of course. You would be surprised, how often couples will find themselves months or years into a relationship and not be aware of what their partner’s boundaries and core values are. Here is a list of the basic rules around what is considered cheating in a monogamous relationship.

1.A Cyber Affair

A cyber affair is considered cheating in a relationship when a spouse is communicating online, either through social media or private messaging consistently with the same person and it involves 4 traits. This type of affair is not easily noticed, since it’s all online. No physical meeting has occurred, no lunch dates or late-night restaurant meet-ups, yet. The scariest part of a cyber affair is that they might eventually meet in person and sparks will fly due to the connection they feel online. The 4 common themes to the cyber affair are 1. Is it secret? 2. Is there a sexual undertone? 3. Do they emotionally support each other? 4. Is there flirting? If yes, then this is cheating.

2.Physical Affair

A physical affair will range from a hug that has a sensual undertone, a kiss on the lips or sleeping together. As easy as it would seem to know whether it’s a physical affair or not, sometimes it can actually be difficult. Some cultures kiss on the cheeks and quick lip kisses all the time. Some cultures hug one another as a sign of compassion. An easier way you can define if physical touch is considered cheating in a relationship is to consider this. Physical cheating is someone using the body’s senses to feel a connection, while the underlying intention is to touch while receiving sensual gratification.

3.Object Affair

This type of affair happens when the significant other is obsessed with an object, a hobby or anything that significantly takes away from the relationship. If the hobby or object is affecting your communication, connection, sex life or anything in the relationship that is important to you it would be considered cheating in a relationship. There are multiple types of object cheating, a common type would be obsessive use of pornography. In some relationships, porn is considered not cheating, but this becomes a problem if porn takes away from the couple’s intimacy.

4.Emotional Affair

An emotional affair is considered cheating in a relationship when your partner stops emotionally connecting with you and starts confiding their feelings with someone else. This is often someone with who they would have similar problems. Someone who has been their friend for a long time and that they vent to often while still being emotionally available with you would not be emotionally cheating, but if they stop emotionally connecting with you this could be a concern. The question is, if they stop talking with you about emotions then who is it they are connecting with and how long is it before they look for more than just emotions from them?

5.An Affair With Their Phone

Yes, you read that right, an affair with their phone can be considered cheating when the excess use of it makes it seem like your partner gives more attention and comfort from their phone than they do with you. A survey with Millenials showed that nearly 4 in 10 consider their cell phone more helpful than their significant other. This is a shocking survey that proves more people are finding their phones highly addictive, resulting in less time with their partners. A great way to help curb that problem is to encourage goal-oriented practices like putting down the phone for an hour at a time or leaving the phone in the car when you are out on dates.

6.  Financial Infidelity

There was a poll that surveyed 23,000 online people to see if men and women considered financial infidelity to be an act against their relationship. What was shocking was that more than 60% of both men and women considered financial infidelity to be an act against the relationship and that it was just as bad as having a physical affair. Just as astonishing, it was found that one-third of the people who were in the online survey said that they think if their partners could commit financial infidelity then maybe there would also be an increased chance of physical infidelity as well. The underlying factor here is that trust is broken when financial infidelity occurs.

-What is considered cheating in a relationship is different for everyone, sometimes it’s not just physical cheating but also these non-physical types of cheating as well. From financial infidelity to cyber affairs, what matters most is keeping the trust strong with your partner and being emotionally empathetic. If trust is there, then the connection will always be strong. What hurts the most and is difficult to repair is not the fact that cheating occurred but the trust that was broken. Any type of cheating that can be noted is indicated by a breach of trust.

What do you think about these types of cheating? Are they all considered cheating to you? We want to know your opinion on the matter, write to us in the comments section and let us know what you think.