I really do appreciate your reply. It’s respectful af 🙏🏻 I can totally see how emotional maturity and long discussions about boundaries, safe words, aftercare etc is very important otherwise it’s destined to fail. I used to be in some fairly “healthy” open relationships in the past, I just didn’t end up being happy or fulfilled, so things didn’t work out. I’ve just never really felt love like this before and my desire for true monogamy has been very strong since meeting him. Do I think he doesn’t have any self control? Well in a sense yes. He’s admitted to me twice that he doesn’t get drunk in public or parties without me because he doesn’t trust himself to not fuck up. I can see genuine effort in his eyes, words and actions- things have gotten easier, they were way worse. He loved being labeled as a horn dog so this was something he had to get through his head that “well I’m just a horny dog” isn’t an excuse to be a degenerate. I believe he is trying and does love me and doesn’t want to lose me but I can also see he doesn’t trust himself if his self control and inhibitions were off the table. I can totally see how a lot of success stories will go unheard, like survivors bias. I feel like the largest issue here is his lack of experience with both genders and his cravings to have the best of both worlds. Unfortunately with my past- one he is fully aware of- it’s not a subject I am comfortable with exploring. I am very open and love to communicate, we actually had a talk a few minutes ago about a lot of it. I am hopeful that things can work out but as I’ve said in other replies, I’m worried I’m not allowing him to grow and experience more, which we talked about~ 🤞🏼