Friend’s dinner invitation

[ChorltonCreamery]

I want opinions about my feelings and want to know if I am mad.
Been with my husband a few years and like most people I imagine go out together and separately. I tend to go out with other women he tends to go out with other men with an exception being a hobby which has both men and women.
Well I know this woman from school who coincidentally is a close friend of my cousin’s but whose kids are not in the same year. Her kids are in wraparound so she isn’t in playground but when I see her we have a lovely chat and she was at my cousin’s 40th.
Last week she was at school and she asked me to come round last night. I was really happy and was looking forward to it. I imagined it was going to be a few mum friends.
I got there and it was a full on dinner party with a couple and a few single friends including men.
I found myself feeling really really uncomfortable because I was out in that setting with men who weren’t my husband. She was very hospitable and it was genuinely a nice evening but I felt weird about it. I genuinely don’t think of myself as some Stepford Wife but I couldn’t shake off my awkwardness. Am I mad? Can’t tell my real friends in case I am mad! Would you feel weird or is it just me?

@GreenFingeredNell15

I can completely understand what you mean, OP.

Usually you socialise single sex or with partners.

You were invited to a hotchpotch(female, male, partners) dinner party which you didn't realise was going to be a dinner party

That is not the norm for you and it would have thrown the heck out of me too

You're not weird

To me that’s not usual at all— are you genuinely saying you only socialise with other women, apart from occasions where you include partners? You have no male friends, or mixed-sex friendship groups at all?

Is your friend single, if so its probably much more natural to her to mix and match different friends. It maybe felt weird to you if you haven't been in those sort of groupings for a long time? Embrace a change and enjoy it next time! Bit weird to just call it a bite to eat tho!

@GinAndTopic

Is your friend single, if so its probably much more natural to her to mix and match different friends. It maybe felt weird to you if you haven't been in those sort of groupings for a long time? Embrace a change and enjoy it next time! Bit weird to just call it a bite to eat tho!

Why would it be more natural if the friend is single, though?

Some of the assumptions about the gendered nature of people's social lives underpinning this thread are fascinatingly alien to me!

Leighcloon, Hmm I've just been trying to explain it to myself and got myself in a tangle! I was just trying to explain a different mindset to OP, could have been a married person, it wasn't about the gender but being invited as a single. OP said she felt weird precisely because she does seem to have a gendered social life. Not my experience, I've often gone out without my husband in mixed sex groups.

Can someone please tell me how you reply to a specific text or user, or do you copy and paste? I've tried the reply button but it doesn't work for me!

@GinAndTopic

Can someone please tell me how you reply to a specific text or user, or do you copy and paste? I've tried the reply button but it doesn't work for me!

Hit the 'Quote' button above their post -- but it doesn't work if their post is already quoting someone else's.

@GinAndTopic

Can someone please tell me how you reply to a specific text or user, or do you copy and paste? I've tried the reply button but it doesn't work for me!

I’m on my mobile and I just tap the three little dots on the bottom right of the comment, get the pictured options and hit ‘quote’.

Ohh 'quote' not 'reply' thanks

It's odd to invite a lot of couples and then extend an invitation to one half of a couple. Most normal people would find it a strange thing to do.