Published on 12, July, 2020
How do you maintain friendships?
For the first time in my life at 45 I've made real friends. Bonus points they are all ND!
I'm struggling with the amount of contact. In my case it's a family, made friends with the cat, the horse, the dog first (obviously! ) then the mum (because the cat went missing) and son (11) followed by adult daughter (20) and mum's new partner.
They all want to talk to me and I've never had that before. Lots of texting and we've established a daily routine accidentally where I stop at her house most days when I'm walking my dog.
Does anyone have any tips? I don't want to do my usual if getting overwhelmed and running away especially as mum has a health concern right now, but the rest of the family are coming to me for support (including her mum) and it's hard going for me.
First post so if I did something wrong please say
This is exactly how I can be sometimes with my own family.
You're reacting naturally. You have nothing to doubt yourself on, look at the positives you're doing exceptionally well.
It's ok for you need to take a break though. You can't be there for people all the time. You need some "You" time as well. So if you need to step back that's absolutely fine. You can tell the people around you that you need to do this and I'm sure they will understand.