we moved to a new area when my DD was four and the move was necessary for my husband’s work and now my family and friend network are on the other side of the country.. We chose the town because it had a great small school ,and everyone talked about it was super friendly and great for families.
initially it was great I met a group of mums whose DDs would be starting school at the same time as my DD. We did outings with the kids to the park, museums and play centres. The mum’s started catching up without out the kids for weekends away, dinners out, hikes. I had so much in common with these women and I thought I’d found my tribe
Two years after school started it was apparent my DD was having challenges and we realised she is neurologically diverse.
DD is now 11 and whilst the girls in her year tolerate her they don’t want to be her friend outside school. She is much more immature and gets upset easily with other kids and can be overbearing. She doesn’t want to join the social activities that the rest of the girls enjoy such as football and dance classes. She never gets invited to parties or other girls places and she now just wants to spend all her time on the iPad.
I have lost my mum friends. I tried to keep the friendship going but they were hiding that parties and play dates were happening as my daughter wasn’t invited. I pretended that I wasn’t aware and I was ok. The mums also got really into supporting their DD activities and there is a lot of socialising with this.
i WFH and my husband works requires frequent travel so it’s impossible for me to get into hobbies where I would meet other people. I can accept that my daughter is ND but I can’t accept I now have no friends. I am so tired of Masking. that I am ok and not incredibly lonely