Proprietrix
Posts: 756
Joined: 7/15/2005 From: Ohio/West Virginia Status: offline
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I have just gone through this with a submissive, only in our case, it wasn't leisure activity. It was his family, which made it a hell of a lot tougher. (Hope no one minds if I tell our story here.) I come from a loose-knit family. We don't do Sunday dinner at the parents' house. Hell, we barely afford each other a full evening on the holidays. I talk to my sister on the phone a few times a week. I email my Father daily. To actually visit family though, I'd say *maybe* once a month, if that. The submissive comes from a tight-knit family. They all live within a block of each other. They all work in the same building (family business), they share finances, they talk on the phone numerous times each day. They all attend the younger ones' sporting events. They spread the holidays over several days. They vacation together for a few weeks each summer. After mom, dad, sibling, aunts, uncles, cousins, ball games, holidays, work........... Mistress was starting to fall pretty low on the totem poll. ESPECIALLY since this submissive was still "in the closet" AND we had not reached the point of live-in status. Time with family was equal to time away from me. Often, after an 8 hour work day, and then attending a family member's sporting event, and then checking in on an elderly family member, and then popping over to (whatever relative)'s house to do some kind of monetary thing, it would be nearing 10:00 at night and the only "submission" I had received was talking on the phone a few times throughout the day. Now, bear in mind.... The bond between us was there. he wanted me as his Mistress. I wanted him as my submissive. Our interests were compatible. Our definitions in the lifestyle were compatible. We both wanted this D/s relationship. Now inside mind you, I'm burning my own brains out with CUT THE APRON STRINGS ALREADY!!!!, but outside, I know and understand that we just come from different family types. I felt (and still feel) that I have no place to tell a submissive (and hell, maybe not even a slave), that they are expected to give up the familial. But I did feel that it was reasonable for me to demand more time since well... this isn't a casual vanilla dating situation... Unfortunately, the submissive wasn't willing to sacrifice any time with his family. At the same time, he wanted to accomodate my desire to have him around more. He ended up popping in on the way to work, stopping over on lunch, stopping in after work.... just generally making "pop-in" visits all day long every day. And he wore himself out and, frankly, wasn't much use as a sub. As a friend, absolutely! As a casual play partner, great! Even as a confidant. He is still a wonderful person. But just isn't able to keep up with the demands of both his family and a Mistress. I removed his collar. Not because he had broken a contract. Not because he was a "bad" sub. Not because he had not minded. Simply because I felt at this point in his life, he was not ready for that level of commitment. As a Dominant, I felt it was healthier for him to learn seperation from family at his own pace, instead of a pace dictated by what could have been seen as an overdemanding woman. I know deep down inside that the same issue will arise for him if he even tries a vanilla relationship with a woman. Unless maybe she is integrated as part of his family. We're still very close friends and talk on the phone daily and still get together and do things. And both of us are sad that the D/s thing didn't work out. I guess for me, I'm in agreement with you GDG.... a submissive's primary (not only) focus should be his/her Mistress. If I apply the situation above, but substitute "leisure activity" instead of family, it would have been pretty simple for me. I would have probably said "You get X number of hours and that's that. Take it or leave." This might sound harsh, or uncaring, or egotistical, or whatever, but if I'm not at the top (or pretty damn close to the top) of my submissive's totem pole, I don't care to even be on it, unless it's "as a friend". I think part of the reason is because what I seek in power exchange is 24/7, full-time, lifestyle (insert appropriate term here). When that is drastically reduced (for whatever reason), the relationship begins feeling like "play times" instead. Not necessarilly because we're "playing" (in the fetish/bondage/kink sense), but because I feel like my sub's submission is a role that they put on for a few hours around me, and then remove when they move on to the majority of their time. I'm not saying I need my submissive on my hip 24 hours a day. I understand there are normative obligations in life beyond one's Dominant. But I do want an ample amount of my submissive's time to either be with me, or in service to me. Otherwise, to me, it's starts feeling like timeshare domination. I don't know if that in any way addressed the question at hand, but it was definitely long winded.
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