Is flirting good for a relationship? I am a 34 yr. old male in a committed relationship. I have no intentions of cheating or anything even remotely close to that. I am totally in love with my girlfriend, we have been living together for a year. I'm not really a flirty kind of guy, especially now, but I used to be, um, friendly or kind of flirty I suppose. It's fun, and makes me feel good about myself. I usually don't, or don't consciencely do it, but I do it occasionally with NO intentions of it going anywhere. Please tell me what you think.

I think most people flirt now and then and there’s not much harm in it, but that doesn’t mean I’d go so far as to say that it is good for a relationship either, especially one that is only a year old. I just read that they did some research about why married men pick an SUV over a minivan, and one of the reasons was that if they broke up with their wife, the SUV would be better for getting dates. So you see, in the back of many men’s minds is the possibility that their marriage might not last. By practicing flirting, in a sense you are saying the same thing. You don’t want to fall out of practice so that if you do break up, you can get right back into action. By keeping that reserve shows that you are not 100% committed to the relationship. If you’re at 99%, that’s not bad, but if you keep on practicing your flirting skills, it might dip to 98% and then 97%, etc. So while flirting can make you feel good, and it’s all right to do it once in a while, try not to make a habit out of it. And definitely don’t keep flirting with the same woman or you’ll soon be out of the 90th percentile and into negative numbers before you know it.