To be jealous of my friends and acquaintances who are parents and don't work?

[Souredstones]

Or, really, do I just need to delete Facebook and ignore the lot of them?

I'm a full time working parent to school age children. I love working. However my health has worsened in recent years and I'm really struggling with the work/life balance issue. DH and I have agreed that we need the money of both wages I the house to keep our heads above water.

I am fat (13 stone and a size 18), unfit and unhealthy (asthmatic, high bp, high cholesterol, osteoarthritis) and quite frankly fucking miserable even though I eat ridiculously healthily. Yet when I try and seek support from 'friends' I get none.

Tonight on Facebook I saw red (not their fault really) and got sick of the same posts from the same people:

2 single parents, neither work, both attend slimming world twice a week, both have lost 4 stone in recent months, both still bragging about it. I'd love the time and energy to join a slimming club for support, sadly I have neither, let alone the money.

Same single parents as well as the sahm parents bragging about all the marvellous things they've done with their children this half term while mine are left to wallow at their fathers as I was denied the annual leave for the week.

The group of mums who I am 'friends' with have all planned a night in/out tomorrow, guess who is the one member of the group left out. I asked why and apparently it's because I wasn't around this week and they are celebrating the end of half term with a well deserved night of drinking wine and indulging in chocolate.

I know it's petty jealousy, I know Facebook is shit. But why do I feel like I've got the raw deal in life here for doing the right thing by working?

sorry for such a long post

I don't think it's necessarily fair to attribute others' weight loss to them being able to attend slimming clubs and you not - if you are unhappy with your weight then there are ways to change things which don't have to cost either money or time particularly. Perhaps if you could at least put some of your anger into an internal competition with them then you could channel some of your feelings into doing yourself some good - not sure if that would help, but I do know that feeling fed up, a bit trapped in a job you don't necessarily enjoy and resentful of your friends is probably more inclined to send you towards comfort food than a night at the gym. I hope you can find something to feel positive about soon...

I think you have your own issues that sound complicated but none the less, they need to be sorted out.

It's easy to take offence at what other people put on their facebook pages. It's easy to be jealous of other people losing weight and spending time with their children when it's something you want to do but cant.

However, it's a total waste of your energy.

The people on your FB account don't exist just to make you jealous...they're just doing their own thing and getting on with their lives.

Your energy might be better spent by taking a long hard look at what you can do to improve things for yourself.

If you come to the conclusion that you really can't change what you dislike about your life then fair enough.

But don't waste your energy pointing fingers at others because they appear happier than you....it achieves nothing