My boyfriend (22M) wants to have an open relationship to compensate for my (23F) past sexual relationships

My boyfriend and I have been dating for about 2 years now and we spent about 1 year of that time living together. I recently moved back in with my parents so that I could finish off my senior year of college with their help and have since moved into a dorm about 3 hours away from my hometown (and my boyfriend). My boyfriend had asked me how many sexual encounters I’d had pretty early on into our relationship and I was honest even though i could tell my answer was pretty upsetting to him. He seemed to try to move past it after that because we continued dating but it came up constantly in arguments and has become a “reason” for a lot of things he’s done that have bothered me. He says he only engaged in sex with girls he was love with and wanted his life partner to have done the same. Now that I’m away at school, in the midst of an argument he suggested an open relationship. He says he doesn’t want to feel like he missed out on something everyone else did (as in having sex with whoever you’re attracted to I guess?) and feels it might alleviate all the tension we have surrounding this problem in the relationship. I’m not completely closed off to the idea (although I don’t love it) but I know he doesn’t want my side to be open and that doesn’t seem right to me. I just want advice on how to move forward? I feel weird dropping the subject like he’s done, knowing that he has these wants. I also love and care for him very much and would prefer not to lose him but I’m not sure what the best solution is here.

TL;DR

My boyfriend suggested having sexual relationships with other girls while I’m away at school to alleviate the tension he feels because I did not save myself only for people I loved. He has dropped the subject now because he doesn’t want my side to be open. How do I move forward?

Submitted September 29, 2022 at 09:59PM by 999wrld6507 https://ift.tt/D37AtKS