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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to ask if this friend is toxic? And IABU to confront her about her behaviour?

36 replies

BeyoncesMama · 14/05/2013 13:32

First post so be gentle with me ladies Smile
This may end up being long so Flowers if you make it to the end!

Have been part of a small, and extremely close group of friends for over 10 years now, only four of us and we have been best friends since school. I will call these friends A, B and C just to make things easier. I must stress that the friendship with this group means a great deal to me, so would love some advice on how to deal with this.

Particularly since university, we have found some of A's behaviour to be emotionally draining and hurtful. She has always been 'feisty', but in recent years she has become aggressive, judgmental and hypocritical. Every time we meet up for lunch or something, she spends the entire time talking about herself, and if any of us tries to direct the conversation elsewhere she sits looking bored and quickly finds a way to bring it back to herself. Since splitting up with her ex-P, she has embarked on a series of 'friends with benefits' type relationships and one night stands (NB, none of us are 'judgy' about this - if she's happy with it, we're happy iyswim) but she has become attached to the point of obsession with one of these men, and every time we see her she complains about him and asks what we think she should do. Any advice we give is sullenly met with, "yeah but I'm going to do what I want to do." We're always happy to give advice or even just to listen, but when the 3 of us all have very real problems in our lives, it feels a bit insulting to have our friend wail at us about how unfair her life is, when it seems that all she does is get drunk and sleep with men.

Throughout my entire relationship with my now ex-P, A would constantly talk about my ex-P in a derogatory way, and every time I saw her she would try to convince me to leave him "because he's ugly and if you stay with him your kids will be ugly too". She would phone me drunk from parties saying "I don't want you to be with him." I told her this made me uncomfortable but she didn't stop. I even wondered whether he had tried it on with her and this was her way of trying to tell me, but she said this didn't happen. I have asked her why she had it in for him since we split up (split nothing to do with her!) and she said "I just didn't think he was good-looking or particularly nice." Confused And knowing her as I do, I know that she would just tell me if he had been inappropriate with her.

Keeping this in mind, another of these women, B, is in a verbally and emotionally abusive relationship and is very emotionally vulnerable. At one of our recent meets, B's DP was calling and texting her with abuse and telling her that she wasn't allowed to come to the next thing we were planning (he does this pretty much every time she goes out or comes over to one of our houses). Me and C gently tried to talk to her about it and discuss his behaviour whereas A shouted us down and said, "You two can't tell her to split up with him, you can't help who you love. B, ignore these two, I'm on your side" etc etc. We hadn't been telling her to split up with him or anything of the sort and we were furious that she was pushing a vulnerable woman back towards her abusive DP by implying that her friends 'aren't on her side'. That's what her DP wants her to think as well!

She is always moody if any of us have to cancel meeting with her because of family emergencies, illness etc even though I have been v apologetic on the few occasions I have cancelled over the years. However, often when we are about to meet for lunch, she'll text one of us saying she's too hungover or something similar.

Probably the worst thing is her tendency to 'go cold' on any one of us, seemingly just because she feels like it. She will ignore calls and texts, blank the victim at any group meets, etc. This can go on for as long as she wants it to - eg. a few years ago, she went cold on B for almost 2 months until B couldn't take the silent treatment anymore and burst into tears and asked what she'd done - it turned out it was because B had taken a long time getting her coat from the cloakroom at a club and A was bored waiting. She also went cold on me for several weeks because I had said her ex-P looked hilarious in some trousers he was wearing (NB we were at a fancy dress party, this wasn't intended as an insult!)

Last year neither B nor me could make her birthday celebration (we did do a special dinner with her but this was some clubbing thing, mostly with her work friends) and she told us it was absolutely fine, but spent the whole night bitching to C that she could no longer trust us because of this. However, the night was hell for C anyway as A showed up late to her own party, spent a lot of it throwing up and virtually ignored C. To add insult to injury, A then spent C's birthday out clubbing with her work friends instead of seeing C. She would go mental if any of us did the same thing.

Sorry this is so long, and you deserve Wine for getting to the end. C and I are pretty much at the end of our tether so I just wanted to include a few examples of her behaviour and ask whether these things are petty or if its reasonable to confront her and tell her the 'going cold' and aggression has to stop, and to face the consequences of confronting her, whatever they may be?

OP posts:
kotinka · 14/05/2013 18:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Samnella · 14/05/2013 18:32

Life is too short. She sounds like hard work and TBH I would give her a wide berth. I have been in similar situations where you keep a friendship going as you have known each other for ages or you have shared friends but I think sometimes you have to cut your losses.

I have a group of friends where one woman has similar characteristics. We also live about 2 roads away so bump into each other. If I see her I am polite but I don't arrange to meet her. After years of putting up with her shitty behaviour its quite liberating. Sometimes she goes through a 'we must meet up' phase but my continual excuses normally kill that one off Grin.

DontMeanToBeRudeBut · 14/05/2013 19:24

I think it's a good plan to phase her out. Your shared history doesn't mean that you have to put up with her nastiness.

pigletmania · 14/05/2013 19:30

She sounds awful, ditch her. Meetbup without her

MummyBurrows · 14/05/2013 19:40

I'm sorry but exactly why are you friends with this woman?! She's horrendously immature! I'd ditch her,in fact I probably would of ditched her a long time ago. None of you need her or her behaviour in your lives! Yes you've known her since you were kids but seriously,what exactly does to bring to your lives? Nothing but pathetic dramas none of you need or have time for! I had a friend like that once....its amazing how easy it is to cut people like that out your life :)

I'd say ring B and C about A and all agree to stop arranging to meet up with A and perhaps you should all change your numbers and block her on facebook (if any of you are on there) and just rid yourselves of this woman and her ridiculous behaviour! You clearly all have better and/or much more serious things going on in your lives that don't require you all also having to put up with this selfcentred bitch of a friend either blanking one of you for unknown reasons or moaning and bitching at you all over her petty and poor excuse of a life!

Get rid and you'll all be much happier,and sane too lol. Sooner or later one of you will crack and rip this dreadful womans head off anyway so better to cut her off now before all hell breaks loose a few weeks/months down the line :)

Nanny0gg · 14/05/2013 20:25

Don't know why you're asking.
She brings nothing to your lives and she's clearly not bothered about what you bring to hers.

Ditch. Quietly. But ditch.

Decoy · 14/05/2013 21:33

Tell A why you're not wanting to continue the friendship. I'm probably in a minority but I think blanking people is a rather cowardly way out.

stopmovingthefurniture · 14/05/2013 21:39

decoy I agree. Blanking people and leaving them to get the message is very unkind. This awful friend probably doesn't know she is awful, after all. Perhaps the OP could speak to the other two friends to put together an email explaining that her behaviour sometimes has come across as hurtful? Without giving examples. Gentle ground rules, rather than blanking/ditching.

butterflyexperience · 15/05/2013 05:00

Get rid...

DonDrapersAltrEgoBigglesDraper · 15/05/2013 06:17

I also agree that if you're up for confronting her, then you should do that rather than phase her out.

OK, she may not take it well and flip out, but that's her look out. As least you will know you handled it correctly.

I don't say this lightly - I find confrontation very, very difficult, and this is exactly the sort of thing I'd hate to do. But when it's an old friend and she's behaving in such an unbelievably immature, socially inept way, one can only presume that she just does not have a clue.

At least by confronting her, you give her a minuscule chance of copping onto herself, reflecting, and then maybe going on to have healthy friendships in the future. If you phase her out, you'll always be the bad guys in her eyes.

redexpat · 15/05/2013 10:38

What you describe is not a friendship, it's a habit.

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