If you've been together for years and you have no doubts your partner has always been faithful up until now, it's worth hanging around. How soon into the relationship it happens is also highly relevant. The earlier the infidelity, the less chance the couple have of making it. Giving them another chance feels like the right thing to do.
Do you deserve better? Do your kids deserve better?
If your honest answer is, 'My partner is worthy of us, he/she just made a horrible mistake' your loyalty is probably deserved. You can understand how and why it happened
Was the relationship going through a rough patch? Was your partner struggling with something like the death of a parent or another traumatic event?. If you were put in their situation, would you perhaps have done the same thing under the same circumstances?.I'm not suggesting cheating is ever justified - it isn't - but it does help if you can at least understand how it happened and their explanation of why rings true?
