I want you to sit back and imagine you’re with your boyfriend/husband or girlfriend/wife. The both of you are enjoying yourselves, and having a couple of laughs. You are feeling loved and safe, but then someone walks over and begins to flirt with your partner right in front of you! Now let’s add insult to that injury, this person knows you two are a couple. Do you feel it? The jealousy, the feeling of insecurity, feeling offended, do you feel the trust you had for your partner slipping away?

I’ll state facts right now, a closed relationship is not an open relationship. A closed relationship means there are only two people in the relationship, and no one else but the two who are involved. There are boundaries in every relationship, which those boundaries should be respected by both the partners and the people around them. In general flirting with others/or/others flirting with your partner is a large bolder no! But letting someone flirt with you in front of your partner is no better. You’re with your partner for a reason, you don’t need others to flirt with when you have a partner; flirt with your partner instead.

Did you know allowing others to flirt with you in front or around your partner can cause your relationship to get bitter? You’ve now made your partner feel insecure, left them thinking “Am I not good enough? Were you flirting with them when I wasn’t around? Is he/or/she better than me?” This has caused trust issues and jealousy. But we all know the saying it takes two to tango. To the person flirting, you’re ruining a relationship, and the partner allowing the flirting to happen, you’ve offended your partner.

Now here is a tip to the partner being flirted with, there are many simple and easy ways of making the other person stop. Make it extremely obvious that you are in a relationship and happy with it, for say the person didn’t know or needs to be reminded. Please! Don’t ever give a reaction when they are giving flirtatious behavior. You need to talk to the person who is flirting with you and tell them how it’s making both you and your partner feel. If none of these tips make the flirter stop you need to distance yourself from them. As for the victim, the partner witnessing the flirtatious act between this person and your partner, you too can speak to the flirter. You need to as well let them know you are in a relationship with that person, and it would be kind of them to stop flirting, don’t ever be afraid to approach the person who is flirting with your partner. To the flirter, you are disrespecting them both, by not respecting their relationship and backing off.

So to everyone who has read this, please keep in mind flirting with someone in front of their partner, and even when their partner is not around it is horrible, disrespectful, and just plan out rude! You are ruining their beautiful relationship and causing problems that aren’t necessary. A small call to couples out there dealing with this, the partner being flirted with, stand up and tell your flirter they need to back off, you’re in a relationship, stand by it!