Is Your Phone Off Limits to Your Partner?

It’s confession time.

Do you ever peek at your partner’s phone?

(Slowly raises hand.)

I do.

Yes, I do. I admit to occasionally looking at my husband’s phone.

Usually it’ll be right after he’s looked at it and laughed.

What? I want to know what’s so funny, too.

Unfortunately, I’m sorely disappointed most of the time. His funny is not my funny. His funny is a mix of Ridiculousness and Jackass. Basically, he’s a fourteen year old boy.

But that doesn’t mean I still don’t want to see what is making him laugh. Sometimes I’m just feeling nosy. Or bored. Or nosy and bored. I don’t feel bad about it either.

I mean, he’s made it clear to me that his friends’ messages are off limits. As are his family’s messages. And I get that. I don’t let him read my friend or family messages either. That wouldn’t be fair to the other parties involved.

In the fairness of full disclosure, I delete all the seriously juicy stuff right away anyway and I'm pretty certain he does the same thing. Just in case, of course. I mean, the temptation is great when a message starts with "OMFG. STFU. You won't believe the idiocy I have to deal with 100% of the time. IT'S OUT OF THIS WORLD."

Basically, my friends and I are also fourteen years-old. That would explain why my husband and I go together so well.

But the other stuff? Facebook, Twitter, social media apps? Totally within limits. At least within our marriage.

I know some people are very private with their phones. I have friends who don’t let their partners near their phone. They never forget to lock it and they never leave it unattended.

I have other friends whose partners insist on viewing each other’s phones without any restrictions. They are adamant they should have full access to it.

Us? We’re somewhere in the middle.

We’re pretty easy going about each other’s phones. He occasionally picks up mine, I pick up his. I know his password, he knows mine. We don’t get angry when we see the other looking at it.

It might not work for everyone but it works for us.

What about you? Where do you draw the line with your partner? Does your partner have access to your phone or is it strictly off limits?