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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Going mad: best friend and her PFB

52 replies

Mummyof2too · 23/03/2025 18:55

Name change for this…partly a lighthearted whinge and partly asking for advice

One of my best friend had her first DC at the same time as I had my second. I love her, her husband, and their DC to bits. But I’ve also realised she’s become a bit insufferable since having DC.

  • She’s fully embraced “natural” living, no plastic allowed in their home. We were out at a park and she’d forgotten a snack, I had sliced berries in a plastic container and she said asked if the container had been through the dishwasher and she wouldn’t give them to her child because of the microplastic risk.
  • DC just turned two and both parents are reasonably clever, so i won’t be surprised if DC is as well. But they says DC is toilet trained, except for when they’re not home, or for a poo, or overnight. So, not really toilet trained!
  • Our oldest (5) just had Covid and I said he’d sat in the lounge for two days and watched films all day, she glared and asked if I had thought about reading instead to keep him entertained because screens are so horrible for children’s development. (For the record, we don’t actually have a telly and he only gets screen time when sick or out at the cinema).
  • They say their 2 yo is reading and send videos of their PFB saying some of the words (“Peepo!”) but not exactly reading, obviously.
  • she’s still breastfeeding and keeps asking me why I’ve stopped and how my 2 yo must miss it and be sad.
I love her to bits and she was not at all like this before baby, we’ve been friends for nearly 20 years and I’m really blindsided by how much she’s changed. I don’t think I was ever this precious with my first, so don’t have a good idea of whether this is something she’ll grow out of with time? Or am I being a mean friend and I should be more patient and understanding?
OP posts:
FernCurl · 23/03/2025 19:43

PyongyangKipperbang · 23/03/2025 19:35

Does she work?

I have encountered quite a few women who exchanged professional careers for SAH motherhood and ended up treating it like a job. So they get their validation from their childs achievements and dont see that having a happy healthy child is the goal, not them "winning" at parenting.

I'm not sure about this. One of the worst mums I know is the one who spends least time with her daughter. It's actually her husband who is the home-maker, and his approach is much more realistic and laid back. My friend bitches to me that he doesn't always take their daughter to the park after school and gives her sweets etc., but I don't think she understands that some days we don't all do the most perfect, improving activities with our kids all day every day. Some days you sit in front of the TV, and not every meal you produce is a perfectly balanced healthy meal, and that's fine.

SmoothEncounter · 23/03/2025 19:43

Hopefully her second child will be a satanic little whirlwind of destruction and force her to lower her ridiculous standards.

Id find it hard not to laugh in her face.

SunsetCocktails · 23/03/2025 19:44

She does sound insufferable. You can guarantee things will change when her PFB starts school and suddenly has outside influences.

Merrygoround8 · 23/03/2025 19:45

I’d have to pull back… Hopefully won’t be long until she has a second and is humbled! But some people change and it could mean the end of the friendship, I couldn’t bear to be around the preaching

Azureshores · 23/03/2025 19:47

She sounds insecure and massively anxious. I couldn't be friends with her I'm afraid - it irritated me just reading your OP.

mamaison · 23/03/2025 19:49

The thing about not putting plastics in the dishwasher has actually been in the news various times and has come from doctors- it is the recommendation of the American Association of Pediatrics. I wouldn’t necessarily say that following this is a sign of mental illness.

However, the rest of it does sound quite insufferable and perhaps she did have some post natal mental health struggles so has become fixated? Especially if she wasn’t competitive and judgey beforehand. Sounds like she is desperately trying to reassure herself she is doing the best for her DC but is doing so by convincing herself that other alternatives are damaging.

I feel sorry for her but you shouldn’t have to put up with what sounds like judgement from a friend.

1000DayChallenge · 23/03/2025 19:49

Awww I remember being so worried that my eldest was late being toilet trained, and my perfect friend said her perfect son (ten months younger) was trained. Until I was at her house, where I watched him take off his nappy and poo on his toys. Thats when I realised there’s no point comparing and it’s not a race…

hotchocfiend · 23/03/2025 19:50

Wow this would drive me nuts. I’d probably stop engaging for a bit for my sanity, check in again later down the line and see if any change - and if not just accept you may need to pause/end the friendship until she sees sense (maybe with a delightful 2nd child as others have suggested!!).

CharlotteCChapel · 23/03/2025 19:51

Does she PPD? I was diagnosed with this for my first as I couldn't leave hom alone in case he stopped breathing. Sudden death for babies was all over the news.

whitejeanss · 23/03/2025 19:53

Yep, I’m the same. I tried not to be too irritating to other parents but I definitely had a lot the ideals your friend does OP, when my child was a baby. In the end my child turned out to be a total law unto himself. Has never sat nicely and done a quiet activity, has an absolute tonne of energy and basically if I survive a day without tantrums or minor medical emergencies it’s a win! 😩

Endofyear · 23/03/2025 19:54

My BIL and SIL were like this with their PFB who was born a couple of months before our 5th baby. It was completely ridiculous and we just used to roll our eyes and laugh and get on with parenting our kids our way and let them get on with theirs. Their 2 were scared of everything & fussy eaters because of the helicopter parenting. They thought ours were a bit wild and unruly I think 😂

Sunnydays25 · 23/03/2025 20:10

Can you meet up with her without the kids, and say you eant a night off from being a mother, so let's not talk about our kids? And remind her, in a jokey way, if she starts telling you her sons latest achievements.

I wouldn't meet up with her with her kid, it's been two years, doesn't sound like she's going to change. Her obsessing about her amazing child is a bit tiresome, but criticising your parenting is so rude. It sounds like she's not doing it out of concern for your children's wellbeing, but just to show you that she's the superior parent.

Poppymeldrum · 23/03/2025 20:26

This was my brother and sister in law

They tried for a baby for about a year and finally had one

Pfb wasn't the word-they had Hyacinth Bucket levels of standards

I knew nothing about children (bar having my own and had been a nanny)

Both sets of grandparents knew nothing about having kids,even though they'd had 6 babies between them (and two there twins)

Their child was the best at everything,first to do anything,the most special child in the world and everyone was to believe it-he was the new messiah

He's a teenager now and he really thinks he's god and has few friends thanks to his attitude (or so I've heard-i met him at a week old and went nc with them-this is what I've heard on the grapevine)

It's a crying shame they didn't have no 2 baby as that may have humbled them

ClemmyTine · 23/03/2025 20:39

AlertCat · 23/03/2025 19:22

What’s a PFB?

Precious first baby.

TheSilentSister · 23/03/2025 20:50

My DS is a teen now but I was lucky to have a bunch of Mum friends where we'd laugh at our own apparent ineptness at parenting. I think it was a case of birds of a feather - we were all first time parents and had son's, who were a law unto themselves. I think it helped that we were all 30's/40's and had a bit of life confidence behind us and didn't follow the rule books. Yes, we had our moments of singing their praises - e.g. Fred will only eat carrots and hates chips. It was met with praise.

OP, I'd consider letting the friendship slowly fade, maybe keep a toe in in case she changes.

Horses7 · 23/03/2025 20:53

YANBU

TheMimsy · 23/03/2025 21:22

Ahhh. I’m sorry @Mummyof2too she has entered her crunchy mum era. You can only hope to beat her at her own game and out crunch her.

here’s some top tips… 😉

https://youtube.com/@reallyverycrunchy?si=63W3Ye-whBEO20hd

Seventree · 24/03/2025 07:25

She's a dick. It doesn't matter whether she's being ridiculous about her PFB, even if you offered her a mars bar she should be polite about it.

My best friend has a child the same age as my eldest and we see them every week. We have different approaches to parenting but neither of us have ever been so openly judgmental.

When she offers a snack I don't want mine to have, I just politely decline (usually with a white lie about them already having had sugary/salty food that morning). When I mention getting kicked in the ribs all night, she doesn't tell me to stop being soft and sleep train them... we just respect each other's right to parent our own children our own way.

Confusedformer · 24/03/2025 07:30

I had a friend brought her 3 year old to my house, who proceeded to trash it. She was having trouble keeping him entertained.

it was before I had children, but I suggested we put ceebeebies on for him. She looked at me disdainfully and said ‘we don’t allow him to watch TV.’

Yhree kids later, they are the biggest screen addicts ever!

ClowningArounds · 24/03/2025 07:40

SunsetCocktails · 23/03/2025 19:44

She does sound insufferable. You can guarantee things will change when her PFB starts school and suddenly has outside influences.

I was going to say this. It will be diluted by outside influences soon enough (is she going to refuse the kid all food at birthday parties for example?).

WhereYouLeftIt · 24/03/2025 09:29

She'd get short shrift from me for some of her comments!

"DC just turned two and both parents are reasonably clever, so i won’t be surprised if DC is as well. But they says DC is toilet trained, except for when they’re not home, or for a poo, or overnight. So, not really toilet trained!"
I'd have said exactly that, possibly expanded into 'So not actually toilet trained in any practical sense, then?'. (Laugh at someone when they are preening - puncture their inflated ego.)

"They say their 2 yo is reading and send videos of their PFB saying some of the words (“Peepo!”) but not exactly reading, obviously."
Again, you do know what to say, you're saying it hereGrin. 'You know that's not actual reading, right?'

"Our oldest (5) just had Covid and I said he’d sat in the lounge for two days and watched films all day, she glared and asked if I had thought about reading instead to keep him entertained because screens are so horrible for children’s development."
Oh don't be an arse! He was ill, didn't have the energy to concentrate on a story, watching a film was all he was able for. Do you insist your child concentrates on you when they are ill?'

"she’s still breastfeeding and keeps asking me why I’ve stopped and how my 2 yo must miss it and be sad."
'Give your head a wobble Sandra! You breastfeed for YOU, not your child's benefit. It makes you feel all Earth Mother and righteous.'

"She’s fully embraced “natural” living, no plastic allowed in their home. We were out at a park and she’d forgotten a snack, I had sliced berries in a plastic container and she said asked if the container had been through the dishwasher and she wouldn’t give them to her child because of the microplastic risk."
She does have a point about microplastics, but she's closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. It's everywhere and pretty much unavoidable. And there will be plastic in her home, again it's unavoidable. Was she sneery about you using a plastic tub? I'd have been sneery back about her not prioritising bringing a snack.

You may have noticed a theme in my responses. They're not actually about her PFB, they're about her. Her wants, her ego, her preening. Because her child is not the problem, her behaviour is the problem. She could be as PFB as she wants, it would only make me roll my eyes. But it sounds as if she is being judgey on top of that, which deserves a bit more than an eye-roll.

I think my default response to her would be 'Got your judgey pants on today, I see?'. I'd give her the benefit of the doubt (for a while, not forever) that she hasn't realised that she's tipped over from PFB/ProudMama into insufferable JudgeyPants/PerfectMama mode. If she persists (I can just imaging she well might, insisting she's only trying to help you to up your game from your slovenly standards <rolls eyes>) then I'd phase her out of my life.

If she takes on board that she's being judgey, the friendship can survive. If she can't (won't?) see that, then it's doomed - but you will have tried.

Smartiepants79 · 24/03/2025 09:36

She can make whatever choices she likes for her child.
She does not get to judge yours. That is the main issue.
If she is really important to you then you have two choices-
ignore it and roll your eyes every time
say to her that you are happy to respect her choices but you expect her to do the same. You will not be listening to anymore comment about plastics, breast feeding or screen time.
She needs to keep her judgy opinions to herself.

AlexandrinaH · 24/03/2025 09:39

AmandaHoldensLips · 23/03/2025 19:07

... "Bitty" ...

Fuck off. There’s nothing wrong with breastfeeding a two year old.

AlexandrinaH · 24/03/2025 09:39

crankycurmudgeon · 23/03/2025 19:14

Lol

And you.

WheresYourSnickers · 24/03/2025 09:44

Wow! Someone touched a nerve there @AlexandrinaH 🤪

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