to not mix my friends?

[bagpussvsgarfield]

I have quite a few friends but all in little pockets/groups of 2 or 3 or even just 1 on their own. Not a lot of them know each other very well and they can all be quite different from each other.

Because of this, I tend to keep my work friends separate from my childhood friends, college friends, uni friends etc etc.

Therefore, if I'm having a gathering at mine and DH's house I tend to do so in groups. I'll invite the work girls round but won't also mix my school friends... even though they're all equally as important to me.

Is this weird to not mix friends or actually completely normal?! I thought it was normal until I started going to see a friend who would also invite one of her friends from uni. The uni friend is a nice girl, not somebody I would be friends as I think she can be a bit full on/come across rude sometimes. But my friend and her uni friend then talk about things I have no idea so sit there with a big smile like "...I don't get it..." as it's a you had to be there moment, and same for the uni friend when my friend talks about something only myself and her were there for!

Maybe I'm over thinking it now I just felt like her uni friend and her could've had a great catch up if I hadn't had been there not understanding what they were talking about and I could've seen my friend when we could've just freely spoken about things, also. Does anybody else feel like it's easier to keep people separate?!

I think you’ve misinterpreted me there! I mean that I feel dropped when someone else comes along because she doesn’t invite me along, not that I don’t like it if she brings a friend along - that’s never happened!

What I mean is, that it makes me feel that I’m only good enough to fill time when nobody else is available but not good enough to be invited along with other people.

I have this issue too. If I have an 'event' to invite more than one set to, then I've been tending to give them all slightly different arrival times (knowing their preferences eg with kids/travelling a long way/working). Gives me more time to spend with each group, rather than the 'buzz' of a big party. If that's not possible, they seem to default to the slightly awkward 'wedding' type conversation: "how do you know x?" Works out just fine, and over the years they start to recognise each other!

I've never done this. I have friends from various places, across many years (so some old friends - 30+ years, some new - in the last 3 or 4). I don't do social gathering things very often but when I have, people have remarked that there are a lot of interesting & different people to those they normally meet.

I only have imaginary friends and they don't get on either.