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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Is my new friend jealous of me. She's queen of the backhanded compliment

64 replies

Mulledcider · 23/11/2016 13:43

We were good friends until age 20 when she got married and I never heard from her again until she was lonely and bored. I knew she was probably just using me but I have her one chance.

Since coming back to the UK she has put on around 4 stone and is now quite a big girl, I'm a size 12 and tall so while I'm not slim, im certainly not fat. Yet she embarrasses herself constantly by making comments that she used to be my size before he lost weight and how she would give me her old clothes but they will be too small for me. She seems to want me to think I am fatter than her when I am clearly not.

She comes from a well off family but is on benefits herself. I have a masters degree and that is something that makes her very jealous as she constantly says she will be doing the same and has a place Line up she just needs to call the uni and start (i just don't believe her).

I have introduced her to my friends and after only one meeting she was adding them on facebook and liking all their posts so they got a bit freaked out and removed her on there. She has absolutely hated them ever since and does nothing but bitch about them and try and turn them against me. They have done nothing wrong. If I'd met someone only once and they were Liking all my stuff I wouldn't do the same as them.

I have a best friend and he is lovely. I would never bitch about him and you can tell she hates how much he cares for me, she has no friends herself so seems desperate for one but loses everyone as why tire of her.

She keeps trying to force a friendship between my best friend and her, inviting him for tea at hers with his boyfriend. His partner has said he doesn't like her and just can't stand being around her because she bitches about me so much when I'm not there. He has never ever said anything like that in the 10
Years that I've known him.

She will sometimes put down the clothes I wear, the area I live etc.
I would never ever do that to anyone.

When I'm told my strangers or
Friends that I look
Lovely or I'm pretty she will say 'maybe In an unusual way'.
Also, my ex messaged her on facebook to ask if he could pick up my
Son from hers'. I actually hasn't been at hers but she text saying oh your ex text me saying hi. I think she was trying to make me angry.

Do you think she's jealous? She's certainly
Lacking in self esteem. I'm thinking of just ending this friendship. It's a shame as we actually have a lot of interests in common. Essentially though, I feel that she doesn't like me. Wants me to feel less confident and is just using me for company.

But then at the same time she would probably be someone who would help you out in a crisis, is generous to my Son when he visits and plays with him, never asks for money or gifts and is always willing to Visit me eventhough I live fairly
Out of the way.

She has openly joked that if she got a boyfriend I would 'never see her'. So maybe she's someone who goes all out until she has a boyfriend.

Aibu to say she's jealous and probably
Someone I shouldn't be around?

OP posts:
AcrossthePond55 · 23/11/2016 14:42

End the friendship. She's using you to make her feel better about herself. The type of person who puts down someone or tries to 'steal' friends away from them to stroke their own ego is pure poison to their victim. It often ends with their victim's self esteem in tatters.

Her self esteem and the way her parents treat her is not your responsibility. If you feel you need to 'help' her, tell her exactly why you are ending it; because she isn't a positive addition to your life nor does she act the way a true friend does. Tell her she needs to get help for her low self esteem. But be prepared for emotional blackmail and/or vicious backstabbing along with multiple attempts to drive wedges between you and your other friends.

alwaystimeforcoffee · 23/11/2016 14:47

She sounds like she has incredibly low self-esteem :(

BitOutOfPractice · 23/11/2016 14:49

It sounds like you don't even like her very much either so why bother?

CreamCrackerundertheSettee · 23/11/2016 14:50

I had a friend just like this! We were friends from school and she could be funny and enjoyable to be with but constantly put me down.

'In sunglasses you look quite pretty' was a memorable 'compliment'. She flirted with my boyfriend, made digs about my clothes.. I was with her one day when I was 20 and realised I never wanted to see her again. I ignored all calls/texts and felt liberated!

HeyRoly · 23/11/2016 14:51

I had a friend sort of like this, but NO WAY as bad as yours OP.

I let her get away with a lot of backhanded compliments and shit because I knew she had low self esteem.

In the end though, I realised that it had been a really long time since she'd said something nice to me.

Don't let her get away with treating you like crap because she has issues. Life's too short for frenemies.

Itsmytemporaryname · 23/11/2016 15:02

I feel sorry for her. She sounds a bit lost.
It definitely isn't your job to put up with her but how about tackling one issue and see how she reacts?
If you were to say 'BFF told me you were slagging me off the other day, is there something you want to talk about?' or 'do you realise you're always commenting on my weight?' She might reflect and realise she's hurting a friend.
Her behaviour seems to be in a desperate spiral to get more friends and she might not know why she's putting people off.
I don't know, I'll probably get shot down for this but you seem quite well adjusted so maybe you can help her.
Of course if she doesn't apologise or reflect at all then you know she's not worth your time. Flowers

Teepish · 23/11/2016 15:07

Oh God Op yeah shes well jel. Disconnect at once.

SlottedSpoon · 23/11/2016 15:08

At the very least she sounds like really hard work. I would start to distance myself if I were you.

BuggerOffDailyMirror · 23/11/2016 15:13

OP, hate to go against the grain here but I think you sound quite conceited and actually extremely judgmental of this woman, no wonder she has low self esteem with friends like you around Hmm

"I'm so pretty strangers tell me I am"
"I have a masters and she's on benefits"
"I'm thin and she's fat"
"She's lonely and has no friends"
"I have loads of friends"

Honestly you sound bloody awful Sad

Teepish · 23/11/2016 15:16

Buggeroff the ops friend saught her out. The friend is the one wanting the friendship.

Teepish · 23/11/2016 15:17

...and the friend wants to hijack ops friends and bitch about her.

BuggerOffDailyMirror · 23/11/2016 15:18

Teepish I'm sure if I was fresh out of a long term relationship, lost and lonely I'd seek out old friends to reconnect to as well, especially friends I looked up to and hoped to be like once I had got myself together. I'd probably hang onto those friendships too even when it's blatently obvious the "friend" in question spends her life judging me for being on my arse, overweight, on benefits and struggling Hmm

PollyPerky · 23/11/2016 15:20

Bugger- she's not conceited, the things you listed are facts, not opinions.

I think you are reading another thread. Unless you are the friend Shock

OP- just dump her. Be unavailable gradually if you find it hard to cut her off quickly. You know all of this- you just want permission from us to do it don't you?!

Mulledcider · 23/11/2016 15:23

Thank you for the replies everyone. Well I have not messaged her for a few days and in that time she has messaged one of my good friends repeating information about her and claiming it was me who told her it.

It was in fact from an ex of the friend that she got that info. So I guess that tells me all I need to know about the kind of person she is.

She wants my life basically.

Luckily my friends know me,they know I don't gossip or back stab and so she will be completely unable to turn them against me. I have good friends who trust me.

It's just a shame I had to give her so many excuses and stay friends in the first place.

OP posts:
Teepish · 23/11/2016 15:24

Bugger what do you make of the friend adding ops friends on fb and them all deleting her? Something off. It feels familiar to me because I had a "friend" like that years ago. Deep down she didnt like me.

Mulledcider · 23/11/2016 15:24

As soon as she has a boyfriend you hear nothing from her. Once she has been dumped she comes running back.

Her husband divorced her and it was only then that she got in contact with me.

OP posts:
Teepish · 23/11/2016 15:26

Mulled has she ever criticised your decisions/things you enjoy, and tried to tell you what you should enjoy/be doing...?

BuggerOffDailyMirror · 23/11/2016 15:27

She was married and now is talking about "if she got a boyfriend", indicating the marriage failed around the time she started trying to strike up a friendship with the OP.

Whether they are facts or not, in one post on Mumsnet we've learned about the OP's masters, her size 12 tall figure, the fact she is remarkably pretty, that she's a kind person and that she has a roaring social life... on the same note we've learned her friend is fat, lonely, has a failed marriage, is socially awkward, on benefits and less educated than OP.

I can't possibly be the only one getting the impression this may not all be the fault of the friend?

I do agree however that the friendship is toxic and you should end it, for her sake as much as yours because you can't be doing much for her already low self esteem.

Memoires · 23/11/2016 15:29

Tell her next time she's rude. Just say "I'm a bit fed up with the way you constantly put me down. Do you realise you're doing it? Please stop." Then have a conversation about it with her.

There's no reason why you should continue the friendship, if friendship it is, but if you want to help her at all that would be the way to do it, by being honest. You're not losing anything if she takes it badly, just walk away.

Mulledcider · 23/11/2016 15:31

She's not criticised my hobbies much but she has criticised my friends and my ex.
My ex and I are
No longer together but for some reason she constantly criticised him. Eventhough she never met him.

She did not let her ex husband see her daughter as she wanted a 'clean break' from
Him which obviously is wrong and seemed annoyed my ex got to see my Son whenever he wanted.

OP posts:
PollyPerky · 23/11/2016 15:32

Bugger yes you are the only one reading these things into the posts.

Be a good girl and live up to your name perhaps?

BuggerOffDailyMirror · 23/11/2016 15:34

Again with the "I did the right thing, she did the wrong thing" rhetoric OP, her childcare arrangements with her ex and yours are nothing to do with the friendship and yet you feel the need to continue to bash her with them to the thread at large.

I wonder if actually you're maintaining this friendship because you enjoy the superiority you feel over her? Do you think that's why you haven't ended the friendship already?

Arfarfanarf · 23/11/2016 15:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

80schild · 23/11/2016 15:36

I just wonder why people think low self esteem might be a legitimate excuse for this behaviour. I know loads of people with low self esteem and none of them behave badly or are shits. At the end of the day they are just not nice people - low self esteem or not (I have had to deal with a lot of toxic people in my life). Sorry to derail. I am just fed up of reading about people with 'low self esteem'.

BuggerOffDailyMirror · 23/11/2016 15:38

PollyPerky gosh it must be a terribly large burden to bear to speak for everyone Hmm

It's just a thought OP, it's just how you come across to me and perhaps to your friend too?

For what it's worth she sounds very damaged and you both probably need to take a step back for your wellbeing :)

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