It depends on the venue, of course, but in general - we are hired to be "with" the crowd, and to share that attention with a personal attachment would be wrong. My breaks are times I need to get into the heads of my patrons .... not shmooze with my chick in another room. Too many bands have done this over the years, and along with bringing their own booze in and drinking outside on breaks ... they have created a horrible image of the "gigging" musician. This is one reason why I hate to use the word "gig". When I'm at WORK - my clients get my full attention. If a guest is invited, that's totally different, but they would always need some company so they would not be waiting for me to entertain them. It's just not fair.

To paraphrase what Gary said:
I never hung around the hospital watching my (nurse) wife work, so why is it expected that she hang in my places?

The argument about certain bars and public affairs is totally differernt, but for private parties - it's a no no. I don't even like couples in the same bands for the same reason. I had a "no dating" rule with every woman I ever performed with. I never wanted to bring "work home" with me, or take "domestic trouble" to work with me. Gheeze, you gotta be your own person sometimes, don't cha? Couples don't need to be attached at the hip.

I just think it's better for the craft if we treat it as a REAL job, and break some of the old habits that our forerunners created for us. It's a differernt world in the field of entertainment, and it's a struggle just to stay afloat sometimes. I prefer not to complicate it more by adding domestic interaction to the mix.

Anyway ....... it's not an issue at present. I'm currently flying solo these days.
Good/bad ? Still not sure about that.
Good topic though. Seems like a wide variety of opinions on this one.