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When does the OW stop being the OW?

332 replies

Worldwide2 · 12/10/2021 13:16

Hello all

Due to a couple of other threads regarding affairs with married men and men creating second family's with the 'ow'. It has got me thinking when does everything get forgotten and forgiven? As in when does the OW stop being referred to as the OW and is accepted as exes wife/girlfriend. Is it normal to get over such betrayal and move on without feeling bitter or is hard to not harbour a feeling of resentment for a long time towards them?
When you hear someone being referred to as the OW after a number of years you kind of thing ok let go now it's time to move on but is it so simple actually?
I'm not condoning affairs at all but I do know of people who were desperately unhappy with their then spouse had affairs and are now very happy with the other person. Doesn't everyone deserve to be happy or not when it comes off the back of someone else's happiness? I'd like to hear other peoples thoughts on this without it turning into a bun fight of course.

Also this isn't just affairs between married men and women it goes for married women too.

OP posts:
ravenmum · 14/10/2021 10:54

I think most affairs (real or emotional) start very gradually and build up over time rather than being the passionate, secretive, spiteful thrill that we all tend to imagine
I guess you'd have to do a survey to find out the figures, but my exh's affair was indeed the passionate (sex in the car passion), secret, spiteful thrill type - it's not just something you get on TV. You'd be amazed what people get up to!

Worldwide2 · 14/10/2021 10:54

@littlemyssister very good post I totally agree. I think some people like to put other people into boxes and label them 'cheat' ect forever. Then there's people like myself and many others who are more opened minded. Every situation is different and some people just make bad choices. Doesn't mean they are flawed from the get go and forever more.
I agree some people can get caught up with feelings for someone without intention. There is so much grey area on the topic I think.

OP posts:
lottiegarbanzo · 14/10/2021 10:56

As always in life, it's not the feeling that count, it's what you choose to do about them.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

ravenmum · 14/10/2021 11:00

Then there's people like myself and many others who are more opened minded
You're very open-minded about the cheat's point of view, yes; but you seem rigid in your view of the person who's been cheated on and the reasons they might have for using the term "OW". I guess people like me are more open-minded about that.

Reptar · 14/10/2021 11:00

Its not that people think cheaters are 'flawed' so much as they deliberately made a bad choice that caused harm to someone else. Especially if there were kids involved.
Its really not a grey area, which is why adultery is grounds for divorce.

Its nice to be open minded but its also OK to have standards. I dont think I could completely trust someone who had stolen money from someone else's bank account using their debit card, even if they were desperate for money at the time.

Worldwide2 · 14/10/2021 11:05

@ravenmum in what view am I rigid on? Please quote me.

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ravenmum · 14/10/2021 11:06

I think some people like to put other people into boxes and label them 'cheat' ect forever

Worldwide2 · 14/10/2021 11:08

My posts were to bring up a debate on people referring to ow as ow. I don't have any rigid views on that or on the person who has been cheated on?

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Worldwide2 · 14/10/2021 11:09

I wasn't referring to people who have been cheated on. Anyone can have that opinion without being involved in a cheating relationship

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Worldwide2 · 14/10/2021 11:12

Some people who have posted on this very thread believe cheating people don't change and its apart of their make up. They have forever put those people into one box. I was referring to that.

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MrsKoala · 14/10/2021 11:13

I’ve only ever heard people be referred to as OW/OM on MN. I know loads of people who’ve left someone for someone else (exit affairs rather than serial cheaters).

My Dad left his first wife for my Mum and my half sister who was 2 at the time (55 now) gives her Mother’s Day cards and her Mum and my Mum get on well - she came to my wedding etc.

My H was the OM when I left my exH and no one called him that either. My best friend was seeing my exH and they are still together- I never thought of her as the OW.

It’s all fairly common in my circles. I think once people are happy and have moved on it matters less. I don’t know anyone who judges people as black and white as this irl.

Worldwide2 · 14/10/2021 11:13

I also haven't got rigid views about people who have been cheated on. Please read my posts.

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ravenmum · 14/10/2021 11:14

OK I see, I thought you meant that cheatees were putting cheats in a box by labelling them the OW, because that's what they like to do in life. But you mean that people who think cheating is bad do so because they generally like to put people in boxes?

ravenmum · 14/10/2021 11:15

These boxes are confusing.

Worldwide2 · 14/10/2021 11:20

Yes I'm just talking about people in general. It got onto why people cheat and can people change ect some people think no they can't or there was something always 'wrong' with them in the first place.
I think some people will always be cheating arseholes and some have just made a mistake in life. It's all different in my opinion.

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Worldwide2 · 14/10/2021 11:21

I think that was a bit jumbled sorry

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TwinsandTrifle · 14/10/2021 11:23

Its nice to be open minded but its also OK to have standards. I dont think I could completely trust someone who had stolen money from someone else's bank account using their debit card, even if they were desperate for money at the time.

I think that's a good point. I don't think chanting out "once a cheater, always a cheater....marry the mistress, create a vacancy" does anything other than make someone look consumed with bitterness, because it's frequently not true. Whereas something like "it's impossible to trust they will never cheat, as they have shown themselves to indisputably have the capacity" is true, without the projection that they are now going to cheat on every future partner.

I think again, it's like those who try to absolve themselves in the bigger picture of why the marriage had failed and would have ended anyway, but because an affair happens, they get to play the victim. The idea that "well if they'll cheat on perfect, faultless me then they'll cheat on anyone"

Again, not excusing affairs. Just the lack of accountability for some to endlessly chastise a partner (that left for someone else) with zero acknowledgement that for the ten years leading up to it, they contributed equally to the real reason the relationship was failing. But they're golden, because it was the affair that officially ended it.

I don't think you ever can fully trust a cheater again. Once they've shown they can, you can't unsee that. Even if they never do it again, I think having the constant "I wonder..." would be incredibly hard to live with.

Worldwide2 · 14/10/2021 11:27

To go back to the title of my post. I always thought people especially the ex referring to the OW as the OW so many years on must not be over it. But I can see from lots of posts on here it's not that deep and just how that person will always be remembered/referred to.

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LittleMysSister · 14/10/2021 11:32

@lottiegarbanzo

The thing is I don't disagree with what you've just written about how affairs develop or who conducts them *@LittleMysSister*

I don't think 'once a cheat always a cheat' in the sense that someone who has cheated once will inevitably cheat again. I do think the capacity to cheat is one manifestation of consistent personality traits and morals, that might also express themselves in other ways.

That's all very clear in what I've posted on this thread.

It's odd then that you appear to be disagreeing with me - by quoting someone else's misrepresentation of my views - when you aren't.

I was just agreeing with what Worldwide said in her post, rather than implying anything about your previous ones.

However, I do still disagree with what you've said here.

I don't think every person has a collection of personality traits which they demonstrate consistently throughout their lives and would never stray from. I think everyone has the capacity to shock if the right circumstances come along, not just in terms of cheating on a partner, but anything really.

lottiegarbanzo · 14/10/2021 11:35

I think you're talking about me with your 'boxes', whereas I'm talking about people having complex psychologies and varied moralities, different elements of which are expressed at different times in people's lives, depending on context and opportunity.

The choice to cheat, rather than not cheat (always a choice, never an accident), gives you a glimpse into an aspect of who someone is that you might not otherwise have gained and that might never express itself in the same way again.

How people respond to opportunity, to the unexpected, often gives you, and themselves, a much better idea of who they really are than the carefully curated image we all choose to present to the world and to ourselves.

I think people are very complex and that undertaking intentional change to ones own personality and ways of responding to things is really, really hard. Therefore I find talk of boxes and of people fundamentally changing by simple choice, or change of circumstance, too simplistic to mean anything, really.

ravenmum · 14/10/2021 11:39

In any case I don't think it works logically to create two boxes, one of which contains "people who put others into boxes" and the other of which contains "people like me who are open-minded" - that seems like the kind of internal logical flaw that would have its own name Grin

Worldwide2 · 14/10/2021 11:54

@ravenmum I said 'some' people like to put people into a box or label them x, y, z I don't think there are just two types of people.
I think if you go back and read my posts iv said numerous times I think there are lots of different types of people who cheat. I don't think for one second you can put any group of people into one box. I was saying 'some' people do just that. You know once a cheat always a cheat ect

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Worldwide2 · 14/10/2021 11:56

And I am getting fed up with the phrase 'boxes' which I know I started 🤣 anyone got any other terms pls lol

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Worldwide2 · 14/10/2021 12:54

I don't think every person has a collection of personality traits which they demonstrate consistently throughout their lives and would never stray from. I think everyone has the capacity to shock if the right circumstances come along, not just in terms of cheating on a partner, but anything really.

I agree completely with this @littlemyssister

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mynameismaybe · 14/10/2021 13:02

My grandfather cheated on my grandmother and married the OW day after divorce came through. They had a happy marriage for 40+ years. She was aways the OW and he was always the cheater. It was widely spoken about within the family and they were never well liked. You reap what you sow I'm afraid.

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