Ha ha this is funny...
OK... look... let’s assume for good reason that I can’t explain all the intricacies that have occurred via this forum of my 10 year marriage.
I’ll say this... My wife and I have been through marriage counseling...Yes we had all the uncomfortable conversations....and for the most part marriage has been pretty good since this.
Having said this, I still find that I am not totally fulfilled sexually. It has nothing to do with my wife dressing up in heels or anything else. It’s simply a matter of....I’ve been eating seafood for 10+ years every day and sometimes a steak just sounds nice and different.
I think fundamentally women do not understand this. It seems to be more of a male issue. I have a desire to sleep with other women. Yes I understand the hurt that may come from this. I understand the consequences which is why I haven’t done anything and may not ever... clearly I have to determine if I should break up my family and move out bc I’d like to sleep around or if it is more beneficial for everyone if I just cheat a couple of times a year.... or perhaps I don’t do anything. Perhaps I just suck it up.and never scratch that itch. IDK......???
The point of my post was to perhaps reach out via this forum and see if there was anyone else out there who has successfully scratched that itch while married and feel that they’ve made it work successfully without feeling overly guilty or disrupting their whole life. Did they think it helped their marriage overall or did they feel that it wasn’t worth it in the end?
Ok thats a fair answer. I was myself married for 15 years to a nightclub owner. We had a great sex life. We were in love and spontaneous and so forth. The marriage failed for other reasons and my story is elsewhere here so I’ll not bore you with the details.
I know three men in a situation like yours. All have been married more than 15 years. One got a long term mistress in another city. His wife found out and after the initial fall out she looks the other way because of their family & lifestyle.
Another cheated for awhile and now after the difficult conversation and his wife catching him they each take lovers openly. She despises him but he is rich and she is vain. She doesn’t want to divorce the lifestyle or be in the gossip pages (they would be in their city).
The third is most like you. Like you he loves his wife and they have an active, if vanilla, sex life. He is the 2nd sexual partner she has ever had. She is a good wife, loves him, is faithful. But also like you he married someone he was not ever “in love” with. He feels the gravity of responsibility toward her. He has never been faithful to her. He cheats openly but lies to her out of his own guilt. She has caught him over and over. He sweet talks her into staying and then cheats again. He is addicted to the conquest. Her self esteem is in the toilet. He doesn’t respect her. He lies, they fight, he cheats, she finds out. They fight some more.
All of these couples who I know personally are utterly miserable. One of these couples is part of my own family. I doubt any will ever divorce although I personally think they all should. Intimacy is ruined and impossible in each of these couples. All remain together due to finances and/or family and appearances. All have done marriage counseling to no avail.
None should have married to begin with. None were really mutually “in love” although in two of the couples the wife was “in love” but the husband was not. Both those unions were due to ultimatums issued by the wife.
The one couple where the man has cheated for the duration has left him lonely and empty. He doesn’t respect his wife who always takes him back and who after many years may divorce him...and he finds chasing skirts endlessly to be meaningless. One guy is 47, one is 49, and one is 56. All are fit and attractive. Each one would have treated the marriage commitment differently if they could have known the toll the outcome of their behavior would take. That it isn’t all fun and it destroys the core marriage relationship.
This in contrast with the many truly happy married couples I know. Your decision is wholly yours. You will live with the consequences, some of which may be unforeseen and unintended. Right now you have a sexual boredom issue. You think you are missing out. A number of the men here advising you are very young (nothing wrong with that) but have never been married or even in a serious enough relationship to think seriously about marriage. They cannot therefore understand that degree of commitment and the vows you take.
Tread carefully and consider things carefully. You potentially have much to lose chasing novelty.
Perhaps talk to a sex therapist. Alone. Explore why you feel as you do. It is deeper than what you present here as you noted.
There are a number of options. Divorce among them if you truly are not in love with your wife...but a marriage has tremendous inertia. Those who have never married cannot grasp that.
And I get that you are tired of seafood day in day out. It becomes your wife’s duty to switch it up and provide variety...because there can exist excitement and variety within a monogamous relationship...but it requires her willingness to undertake the journey.
Get the book Passionate Marriage by David Schnarch, PhD. It certainly wouldn’t hurt & it might give you perspective. It gets into everything you noted in nitty gritty politically incorrect detail.
Best and good luck.