
Originally Posted by
Ivve
basically, i think "personal space" only covers so much, and tbh snooping is really only ever justifiable at all in a long-term committed relationship. if you have reason to have suspicions about a partner cheating, overspending, lying about substance abuse, or doing something else that could be potentially harmful to one or both of you, then confrontation is the first step. you have a right to know about debt, infidelity, illegal activity, etc. that's a given, no question. everyone has the right to really know the person they're with, because you want to be given the chance to judge whether or not that person is someone you really want to stay with.
after that, if their explanation doesn't make sense to you or their story doesn't add up, tell them so and then snoop. snoop your fucking dick off. if you find something, it depends on exactly what it is that you've found that determines how long you pretend you don't know shit. if you're concerned about overspending and you find a few receipts for frivolous purchases, but it's not really a significant amount of money and shit is paid off, then that's something you just file away for the future. people are usually gonna deny they have a problem, so it helps to have some shit you can whip out to support your opinion. i think you have a problem with spending, and i think this $300 bill for underwear is an indicator. if you find $15,000 of unpaid credit card debt that they've intentionally been hiding for months, barely making minimum payments, you slam that motherfucker immediately.
i think the only time the "severity of offense" thing doesn't apply is in instances of substance abuse. if you find a couple of empty beer bottles at the bottom of the trash and your partner is a true blue alcoholic that has a sponsor and shit, you gotta bring that up immediately. there can't be any compromise for that shit.
if you find nothing, you should probably take a good look at yourself. did you do all of the confrontation, were you up front about thinking they were full of shit, or did you just go directly to snooping? why don't you trust them? etc. at that point, maybe you should be evaluating whether or not the relationship should continue if the trust is broken to that degree.