I've had a friend who I met at a baby class when our first DCs were newborns. Although we met through being parents we developed a close friendship apart from that - going out regularly for drinks, meals, weekends away etc.
Our first DCs are now 13 and over the years I've supported my friend through a complete marriage breakdown, the death of one of her parents, issues with her new boyfriend. And by support I mean spent many, many evenings talking to her about her issues, had her children when needed when she was dealing with something - just been there for her whenever she needed.
Last year I started to have issues of my own (one of my parents died, one of my DC had health issues, I had my own health issues) and my friend just didn't support me in the same way. There would be the occasional text check in and when we met for a drink she would ask a couple of questions but then the conversation would switch back to her - and she really didn't want to go out as frequently as we had before.
I know some of it is maybe my fault for being too available when she wanted to talk, but I felt really hurt by the change in our friendship and her inability to be there for me when I really needed it. I've adjusted the friendship in my mind now so I don't arrange to see her/text her nearly as often, but I still feel quite hurt and angry by how it played out. I also feel like a lot of my mum friends have fallen away as our kids have started secondary school, which is absolutely fine but because I work full time I suddenly feel like I don't have a lot of friends local to me (I still have school/uni friends, but they're scattered across the country) and it's knocked my confidence in building new friends.
How do you deal with friendships changing/ending? And how would you deal with the anger I still feel towards my friend about her inability to be there for me when I needed it? And any tips for how to gain confidence on new friendships would be very gratefully received!