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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Does anyone know (maybe) why my friend

123 replies

AllRightNowInFactItsAGas · 28/06/2018 15:28

suddenly keeps trying to invite me to her house in the day-time when she knows I work full-time?

I have a friend who I've known about a year now and she has suddenly started pretending she doesn't know I work full-time (week days only usually) and she has been asking me to come to her house like on a Monday morning and when I laughed it off (thought she was just having a laugh) and said 'Oh no I can't silly it's Monday morning , ya daft thing haha' she then asked me the very next day to come to her house in the middle of the day, this time she was a little hurt when i said 'No sorry, i have to crack at work (am in the middle of a serious work issue at that moment which she did know), but she just said please come and that she'd already told her kids I was coming. Confused

I'm so confused, she has ALWAYS known me to work full time in the week since we met.

Has anyone got any clue or previous experience of friend doing this to help me figure as to why this is happening all of a sudden?

My DH says just say no and ignore any pouting just and get on with my work as usual until she asks me to do something more normal (ie not impossible) but I'm now left feeling so confused that she suddenly forgot that I work and also seemed almost put out by it this week.

This is new to this week, she always knew that I worked before, in fact she's looked into a similar line of work and asked me all about the hours and what''s involved etc so no confusion there about when I work.

Although she has text me in work time before but I just get back after work when I've seen it and she's always been happy with that before now.

I must just add, I do like her very much, she is nice and kind and a lovely caring friend. I'm just so confused by this week and wonder if anyone can think why she now thinks I can stop working and just go off to her house instead?

OP posts:
AcrossthePond55 · 28/06/2018 16:29

I'd message or call her:

" Hey I think maybe you've forgotten that I work full time! . FWIW my work hours are and I really can't take off during the week for other than an emergency. Is there something going on that you think I need to know about right away?"

AllRightNowInFactItsAGas · 28/06/2018 17:26

Thanks all, I think I've got a clearer idea now of what she thinks.

I don't think it's that she's feeling troubled because she did say if my DH was free bring him too but I just felt like ???? Since we all work.

I am sure now that it's the 'sometimes works at home thing' making her think I've got it all under my control and can just say 'Hey sod work off I just wanna go see my friend'. Well I shall see her on Sunday and see if i can steer the conversation round to a friendly chat about this.

I wouldn't want to fall out over it.

OP posts:
AllRightNowInFactItsAGas · 01/07/2018 14:13

This has escalated a bit more now and I feel weird.

I just needed your thoughts before but I think I need a bit of advice on what to say, if anything as this has gone a bit weirder since I posted a few days ago and I feel a bit upset and 'off balance' about it all now.

So we were to meet with other friends this weekend in a group I put together because we all share a hobby/activity and we sometimes like to get together socially too. I know everyone coming but they don't all know each other (because I created the group and added the people who share my interest into the group).

We were picking her up and some others. She asked me if I was coming to her house first if I was ready earlier (with DH who is also involved in hobby/group), I thought - 'she's doing it again!' so I said 'We'll pop in before we go but only if we can manage to be ready a bit earlier' she never replied to that so i thought she hadn't liked it as an answer - oh well, unlikely to be ready that early anyway - who is?

So I forgot all that with the general days chores/getting ready for the event itself and communicating with the others, also I'd realised that if others turn up they won't know each other so I need to be there early to greet them and collect them together as they arrived. I usually do this because I should do, so I asked DH to drop me there and then him collect some of the others who he was driving to it (he offered to get them all).

So when this plan was formed I sent her a message to let her know what was happening and that I would be at the place first to greet, DH picking them up then meet me there. She said 'So are you still coming to my house then first?' Just so you know, we do not live near her and the event is half way between us, plus it was nearly time, ie just enough time to realistically get ready and get dropped there before they all arrived (in fact we were still a bit late)!! Confused

So I said no I mean this is the plan for TODAY like VERY SOON - and reiterated that I am going to be dropped there first and greet the others and you come with the other ones with DH (he was going out of way to pick them all up and yet she thought he should drive me to hers earlier then drive me to the event then drive back for them all and then bring them to where I was!! I was a bit shocked and I feel unsettled now!

Even worse - she was slightly cool towards me at the event (but not so's anyone would notice, just a bit frosty) and during the time she showed DH a picture of her kids saying she had put them in their special clothes because we might be coming and she had made special party food for us with them (but the event itself was a meal!). So she got them all exited for something that could not realistically or logistically have happened - just WHY?? Sad

Please help me make sense of all this I am so confused and unsettled. It just don't feel right!

I was hoping we would be able to have a good old chat at the meal and feel all better from this week's strangeness, but she didn't sit near me and stayed away plus I had to 'bond' everyone together for the first bit but then it just never happened, she was a bit 'off' - but nothing you could notice from the outsider point of view.

We had made a proper plan to see them all in a couple of weeks (at the weekend which is the next time we're free) and I am not sure what all this is about but there seems to be a request to go to her house almost every day now and we have apparently disappointed the kids if we don't go (which we won't because there's never time when she asks!)

I suppose it's starting to feel like a sort of 'game' but I don't want to play it. I'm mad busy and need easy going friends who are busy too.

I do want the friendship though just want a bit of respect and not to be manipulated. I want understanding from mates like I give them, not more pressure and no-win situations invented. But then I like her!

What's happening? Can anyone help to figure this out and navigate this pressure and still remain friends?

It sounds crazy now I've written it. Help!

OP posts:
HollowTalk · 01/07/2018 14:18

I'm wondering whether she's got something like early onset dementia, to be honest. This behaviour sounds incredibly weird. Could you talk to her husband about it?

Username12345 · 01/07/2018 14:21

Is there a particular reason you can't use your big girl words and just ask her instead of asking us to play mind readers?

I think you need to grow up TBH.

AllRightNowInFactItsAGas · 01/07/2018 14:24

Hollow she's young though - a fair bit younger then me! Not really young I hasten to add so it's not that either (30's)

I actually have considered speaking to him because I am worried on a few levels now. I think I'll wait a bit though. Maybe she'll just go back to normal?

OP posts:
HollowTalk · 01/07/2018 14:25

I think it is worth saying to her, "I'm really worried about you. You keep suggesting I come over to your house in the middle of the day. You know I work full time and can't just go off and visit friends. Why do you ask me to come then? Do you forget that I'm working?"

AllRightNowInFactItsAGas · 01/07/2018 14:25

User maybe you're right but please remember that this is all VERY new (and unusual to me) I'd rather have a bit of perspective first. Others may be used to this type of thing but I haven't come across it.

What are the 'big girl words' one would use?

OP posts:
AllRightNowInFactItsAGas · 01/07/2018 14:27

Hollow thank you - that's the sort of approach I do need, I'll do that one.

I am still hoping it just goes away now though. I don't want to go steaming in and make a situation worse by jumping to gun.

OP posts:
FreudianSlurp · 01/07/2018 14:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AFistfulofDolores1 · 01/07/2018 14:38

I've noticed that people who are able to communicate openly and straightforwardly tend not to encounter these kinds of problems, OP. So "big girl words" would entail taking the bull by the horns and asking her exactly what you asked in your original post.

If you still don't get a reply you're happy with, then that, in itself, is an answer.

FizzyGreenWater · 01/07/2018 14:42

'Friend, don't take this the wrong way but I'm beginning to get a bit worried about you. That's loads of times now you've compltely forgotten the conversation we've had about my work hours and you text again asking me over in the week just like it never happened. Then this weekend you thought I'd agreed to come over when that was never the plan. Are you ok? Have you been forgetting other things? Maybe you should go see the doctor?'

That should nip it in the bud.

burblife · 01/07/2018 14:43

This may be completely jumping the gun but do you think she may have a problem with her DH? Perhaps she wants someone to be with her at her house at certain times? Like she needs a witness? Or maybe some backup in certain situations?

Or maybe there's something else at her house she really wants you to see? Have you been there before?

Stefoscope · 01/07/2018 14:45

Is it possible she's having problems at home and thinking of leaving her husband? Perhaps she's putting the feelers out to check he can rely on you for support with the kids? She's certainly behaving really strangely!

nocoolnamesleft · 01/07/2018 14:45

Is she of a different culture, or anything?

I work with a very multicultural bunch of people. Talking about arrangement, lots of Brits seem to say things like "must do x sometime", or "will try to get there", and I know it probably won't happen, and they're being polite, which is fine. Whereas some of my colleagues from other cultures think this is a firm arrangement, and can't understand why it then didn't happen.

AllRightNowInFactItsAGas · 01/07/2018 14:47

Freudian yes we've been to each other's houses a handful of times the past year (which is fine and good say every couple of months), one of our DH's will pick the other parties up and fetch them over then drive them back (ie my DH get's them or her DH get's us)

AFist Well i thought I was being very clear to her but I know what you mean - communicate about this new issue - but will it seem hurtful? I just wanted other's to give me their perspective first before I might lose a friend. I don't always appreciate people being blunt with me because I find it can cross a line of 'honest and direct' to 'rude and hurtful' and I don't want to risk that - yet. I think it's coming to that though isn't it really.

OP posts:
Juells · 01/07/2018 14:49

She sounds like a lot of hard work, and very demanding :(

Wallywobbles · 01/07/2018 14:50

I think the layers of misunderstanding you are allowing to build up is far more likely to be damaging.

MatildaTheCat · 01/07/2018 14:52

Have a chat and ask her outright if she’s ok. She does seem very keen that you should visit her house, maybe she has something she really wants to show you or ask you? It’s impossible to tell from what you’ve written but something sounds awry.

How about calling her and saying something like, ‘Sarah, I’ve noticed you’ve been asking me over several times and it’s really difficult because I’m working full time and so busy; is there something specific you wanted? I really value you as a friend but it’s impossible for me to just pop over like that.’

You say she was asking about your work, maybe it’s related to that?

FreudianSlurp · 01/07/2018 14:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Username12345 · 01/07/2018 14:55

You call her your 'friend'. You've known her a year. She's texted you. You've seen her.

And at no point did you think to just say something like, 'I'm at work what's up?', 'I know I've been busy, is there anything you need to talk about?'

It so does not need to be super serious and overdramatic. I think your behaviour is just as peculiar.

AllRightNowInFactItsAGas · 01/07/2018 14:58

Wally but how could make myself clearer than 'no sorry we can't come I'm at work' and then she tell her family I'm coming? I am quite direct about being busy when I am. I just don't get it?

The upshot is, I've had a fair few dealings with MH issues (family member) and because I'm now getting concerned the behaviour is falling outside of 'the norm'. I know with family member before I knew about their condition I was TOO direct (treated them as 'normal' without realising something was wrong and hurt them. That seems finally put behind us know but it took years to repair - when i learned how to speak to them so they could 'hear' me. If it's MH - direct is not always ok.

I am 'cautious' with everyone now if it veers away from 'standard behaviour' I think hard before I speak. I still want and value the friendship if this is a MH issue but - not so sure if it's just some 'game'.

OP posts:
AllRightNowInFactItsAGas · 01/07/2018 15:02

User maybe you do - are you ALWAYS sure what to say to somebody, straight away without any consideration for the possible outcome?

I've been very direct but now I am confused by this still escalating. Would you not be?

Do you honestly never ask for advice? Good for you if that's the case but if I am being 'peculiar' in the face of this confusion then fine but I'd still like some positive help to get things back to normal hence me posting.

OP posts:
Nancydrawn · 01/07/2018 15:04

I agree that clear communication is key.

If she texts you at work, what you responded at 14:58 is good. (No, sorry, I can't come I'm at work.)

The bit about popping in if you can get ready a bit early, however, was unclear--I can imagine that from the other side, with the ambiguity making her think that you were coming.

I have no idea why she wants you to go over so badly. If you don't want to ask her straight out, then I suppose you go and see and pour all drinks into potted plants when she's not looking .

MilkTwoSugarsThanks · 01/07/2018 15:04

How about

"Why is it so important that I come to your house? You seem very fixated on that."

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