I’ve known a friend for about a year, but we’ve only become properly close in the last six months. She’s a lone parent to six young children. She’s originally from quite a privileged background but is now living on benefits due to a family breakdown.
The issue is… she is so needy. She calls me multiple times per day, at least four times, just to go through every detail of her life. She expects help from everyone around her and there’s a sense of entitlement that I really struggle with. Despite everything that’s happened, she still carries herself like she’s above everyone else and is very judgemental toward others.
She constantly asks me for favours, mainly to watch her kids while she “nips out” shopping etc. But her children are extremely hard work honestly, feral and I really don’t want to look after them. My own children are a fair bit older and I’m past that stage.
When she asks, I feel like I can’t say no because of everything she’s been through, but I completely resent it. I feel awful even writing this because I know she’s struggling, but I’m starting to question whether I even like her as a person. At the same time, I don’t feel like I can just cut her off, it feels like that would make me a terrible person. I know circumstances change but she chose to have all of those children and quite clearly can’t manage to look after them. The older children parent the younger ones whilst she spends time on the phone.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? How do you set boundaries without feeling like the world’s worst human?