To ask if you're struggling with friendships and loneliness

[crochetmonkey74]

Pre Covid, my social life was v busy. Since Covid, it's pretty dead and im feeling quite lonely. My friends haven't really recovered. Every meet up takes ages to organise, lots of them now prefer to stay in rather than go out.
No falling outs, all still happy being friends. I've decided to try and expand my social circle a bit.
I've tried to join a few more groups etc and that's going OK, but I'm in the early days so haven't really made any friends as such yet.
Anyone found similar and got any tips for making new friends in your forties?

Tbh sadly I have found a lot of people just aren’t doing stuff at the moment for cost reasons. Many of us find that hard to talk about. The Tories have really done a drastic number on our happiness and peace of mind levels.

I Understand your perspectives op, mainly networking and or local groups, but I'll admit it Does take time to build the friendship s

I could have written this post myself. Life never went back to the pre-pandemic routine, friendships fizzled away and even contact with colleagues disappeared, as most work is now done remotely. Adding to this, my husband moved to the USA and i have no family here. So yes, lots of boredom and loneliness in my early 40s. I joined mumsnet today with the hope to communicate with someone !

Hi ladies,
Honestly I've moved towns so many times for work by myself that I've lived this. My total recommendation always is the WI. Or if you are in Ireland the women's shed

It's a new place lately. Honestly!
My old WI baildon bells in Bradford had 400 members , lots of different clubs (running, netball, 3 book clubs, gardening etc) I always knew that dedpite turning up to a meeting alone, I'd be chatting happily to someone interesting in no time.
The swishes were amazing! Sadly the broken bones during our roller disco not so much!! The club's meant that you could be doing something almost every day.

So I totally recommend a search on fb for your local town to see if you have one.
It's a fabulous place for networking with such a broad range of ladies. Not THE old fashioned stereotype anymore. In fact we had a speakers tax if they mentioned cake or jam.