Woman Cuts Off Friends Who Exclude Her From Vacations And Say “It’s Not Their Job”
The friends we surround ourselves with greatly influence our lives, and not always for the better. Unfortunately, this can take quite a bit of time to realize, and even then, we’re faced with the dilemma of whether to try and fix things or finally stop the friendship.
This woman went with the latter, after the last straw, which was her friends once again excluding her from their trip. While it might have been hard, netizens comforted her, saying that it was the right thing to do.
Not all friendships improve our lives
Image credits: unsplash (not the actual photo)
This woman’s didn’t either so she decided to cut them off
Image credits: pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Top_Acanthaceae_9714
“It’s easy to mistake proximity for true friendship”
Image credits: freepik (not the actual photo)
To distinguish good and genuine friends from not-so-good ones or even bad or fake ones nowadays is getting harder and harder. And it all might be thanks to the invention of the Internet.
“In today’s world of social media and surface-level connections, it’s easy to mistake proximity for true friendship,” Kristin M. Papa, licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, and founder of Living Open Hearted, previously told Bored Panda.
One of the signs that your friendship might be inauthentic is one-sidedness. An ingenuine friend doesn’t have your best interests at heart, shows little interest in others’ needs, can’t be compromised with, and doesn’t make the effort to foster a closer bond.
“Many times a fake friendship feels one-sided and you don’t feel that the relationship is reciprocal,” says Papa. “It may be that the person only reaches out when they need something. Most people know what it feels like to have a friend with whom there is a trust connection. However, a fake friendship often feels surface-level or transactional. In addition, interactions with this person leave you feeling anxious, drained, or insecure after you’ve interacted with them.”
If a person feels this way after communicating with a friend, they should assess whether it’s worth continuing the relationship. “Ultimately, if the friendship is harming your well-being and doesn’t feel like it’s serving you, it can be beneficial to distance yourself or have an honest conversation with the person to help you move forward,” Papa suggests.
“We’re bound to outgrow certain friendships”
Image credits: unsplash (not the actual photo)
Sometimes friends distance themselves from each other without necessarily causing harm to each other, too. Many relationships in our lives have a natural life cycle. As we continue to grow and change, we can gradually drift away from people we once dearly cared about.
“As we gain a stronger sense of self, what used to matter no longer does, and we’re bound to outgrow certain friendships,” says psychotherapist Dr. Florence Falk. “Once you’re aware of that, without being cruel or feeling guilt-ridden, you can begin to let go of relationships that no longer nourish your most authentic self.”
A lot of friends drift away and ghost each other and there’s really nothing that can be done about that. In fact, one study found that 38.6% of people have been ghosted by a friend.
Whether you distanced yourself from a harmful relationship or you just grew apart, losing a friendship can be hard in both scenarios. Some even say that friendship breakups are as bad as or even worse than romantic ones. What can help get over a friendship breakup is accepting the negative feelings that come with it and turning to your other relationships that you can rely on.
“Allow yourself to feel that grief and worry, but then allow it to inform your choices as you move forward into other relationships,” says Kaitlin Flannery, an associate professor in psychology.
“Friendships are important, close relationships, so I think that we should give ourselves grace in understanding that a loss of a friendship is going to be hard. My advice would be to turn to your other relationships, and hopefully, you have other friends that you also value and can rely on,” says Grace Vieth, a researcher in social psychology studying friendship dissolution.
The woman shared more details about the situation in the comments
Commenters were very divided, with some saying no one was in the wrong here
Some sided with the original poster
While others believed that everyone in this situation wasn’t communicating well enough
And some thought it was the OP who did the wrong thing
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OP sounds like she's taking the friendship more seriously/deeply than it is at this stage. It's very hard to maintain long distance friendships, and when people travel, they have specific things they want to see. As someone else pointed out, the friends in this scenario like to spend money, maybe they heard the words "I'm unemployed" and translated it as "I'm not going to be able to do much". OP offered her house, despite it being out of the way, and given their financial circumstances, the friends agreed to visit because they wanted to keep her happy rather than save any money. At least that's how I read it. I just wish everyone could be honest with their feelings instead of beating around bushes.
I see it the same way. OP seems to see and expect more from the friendship and its obligations than the other two do. It’s clear that the two plan their holidays together (just the two of them) and use the opportunity to meet and visit OP. In the planning there seem to have been some changes, and the two appear to be making sure that at least a short meeting takes place. However, for them it naturally doesn’t mean that they have to include OP in their plans and/or schedule more time with her, since their original trip was already planned without her. The question is also whether OP really expressed her wishes clearly, and whether the other two saw her “suggestions” more as an open offer, the way locals often make. For example, I also often offer friends or acquaintances to do something like a week-long tour together if they are in my area. But if they have other plans and only visit me for a day instead, that’s also fine. It was just a friendly offer from me.
Load More Replies...Friendships ending is difficult, I’ve had one end recently and I think we mourn the friendship we think we had, but it wasn’t the friendship that we did have.
I am currently in the anger phase of grieving a friendship that turned out to be one of convenience.
Load More Replies...OP sounds like she's taking the friendship more seriously/deeply than it is at this stage. It's very hard to maintain long distance friendships, and when people travel, they have specific things they want to see. As someone else pointed out, the friends in this scenario like to spend money, maybe they heard the words "I'm unemployed" and translated it as "I'm not going to be able to do much". OP offered her house, despite it being out of the way, and given their financial circumstances, the friends agreed to visit because they wanted to keep her happy rather than save any money. At least that's how I read it. I just wish everyone could be honest with their feelings instead of beating around bushes.
I see it the same way. OP seems to see and expect more from the friendship and its obligations than the other two do. It’s clear that the two plan their holidays together (just the two of them) and use the opportunity to meet and visit OP. In the planning there seem to have been some changes, and the two appear to be making sure that at least a short meeting takes place. However, for them it naturally doesn’t mean that they have to include OP in their plans and/or schedule more time with her, since their original trip was already planned without her. The question is also whether OP really expressed her wishes clearly, and whether the other two saw her “suggestions” more as an open offer, the way locals often make. For example, I also often offer friends or acquaintances to do something like a week-long tour together if they are in my area. But if they have other plans and only visit me for a day instead, that’s also fine. It was just a friendly offer from me.
Load More Replies...Friendships ending is difficult, I’ve had one end recently and I think we mourn the friendship we think we had, but it wasn’t the friendship that we did have.
I am currently in the anger phase of grieving a friendship that turned out to be one of convenience.
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