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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to be upset that my friends cancelled coming to us today because they got trashed last night?

70 replies

Numberfour · 12/04/2009 11:02

this has happened two or three times now.

they live a fair way away and would have to take the train to us. they certainly party more than we do (DH and I have a 4 year old son) while they are childless / childfree (and gay with no intentions of having children).

i received a text this morning sent at 6.20am saying that they were not going to make it today to ours and that they are sure we will understand.

should I just understand?? i appreciate that they like to party (i used to right there with them!) but DS and I were really looking forward to seeing them and I have gone to a bit more effort for lunch today than I normally would have just for the 3 of us.

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Numberfour · 12/04/2009 22:57

i can't call it a day, no. i love them very much and i know that i mean a lot to them, too. now that i can see it is the coke and not a me and them thing or a child versus no child thing, i almost feel better about it. Dh won't understand, though.

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BiscuitStuffer · 12/04/2009 23:00

Then I think your best bet is to try and get them over for dinner and offer them a bed for the night. That way they can sleep all day and still come and see you You could all get a takeaway.

diddy1 · 12/04/2009 23:04

I meant to say earlier 'can't call it a day.'

diddy1 · 12/04/2009 23:07

My DH doesn't understand either with this cokey thing. It does take over your life from my exp of friends and family. Nothing u or I can do to change them until they grow out of it. Or if they just take it once in a blue moon they soon start to realise what they were like. Hey enjoy 2m go out it should be sunny.

NancysGarden · 12/04/2009 23:08

(For Sidge: it's Nancy from the general health support thread... )

Numberfour · 12/04/2009 23:08

that's what i read, diddy!
biscuit, i always offer to have them stay overnight. but my house is very small so not really quiet enought for late sleeping.

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Numberfour · 12/04/2009 23:11

thanks for the understanding, diddy. got a picnic in the new forest planned for tomorrow.

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diddy1 · 12/04/2009 23:11

Sorry! no probs. I'm rushing to write too much.

diddy1 · 12/04/2009 23:15

Have a good day 2m. No sniffers will allow a peacful day i reckon and know. X

Alibabaandthe40bunnies · 12/04/2009 23:27

If they are doing coke and are in that scene then it's unlikely you will ever get them to stick to plans you have made. The desire to take the drug and then the selfishness that follows as a result will mean that they let you down each time.

I do think it's a problem for gay men because so much of the social scene revolves around it. I have a very dear friend who is in the same clubbing and drugs scene and the problem is that at the moment he doesn't have a good enough reason to stop doing it. His boyfriend and all their mates do the same so he doesn't feel socially isolated, but it is infact more than 6 months since he spent any time with his suburban friends with kids and we do worry that he's losing his perspective.
But that assumes that our lifestyle is more valid than his. It isn't, but the two are not very compatible IME.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 12/04/2009 23:42

I've got a relative who was particularly bad for doing things like this when he was married to his ex-wife. Forever turning up very late to various things - we'd be hanging on at restaurants at big family get-togethers and they wouldn't even bother to phone to say they were running late. They'd just turn up half an hour late while the kids were starving waiting for them to arrive.

One time he turned up late to a family christening, again with no warning, walked right into church into the middle of the service - his wife never even bothered that time. He said she'd overindulged the night before.

While they too were childless and liked to party, I put it down purely to lack of manners and consideration for others. Before DH and i had our kids, we would NEVER turn up late to a pre-arranged event that someone else was hosting, unless we had bloody good reason. A hangover wouldn't have been one of them - we DID get massively trollied in those days, but not the night before a family occasion or meeting up with friends.

I'm sorry, but the old curmudgeon in me wants to start ranting and raving about the selfish youth of today!

CurlyhairedAssassin · 12/04/2009 23:44

I agree with others that it is so hard to get angry at them to their face - my relative is just so likeable and that's part of what's so annoying, you just can't stay mad at him for long!

Sidge · 14/04/2009 19:54

NancysGarden - I have twigged who you are now, I lose track of user names!

How's things with you? I'm OK, very up and down though which has surprised me.

Sorry for hijack!

Ineedmorechocolatenow · 14/04/2009 20:22

Some very good friends did this to me on my hen night (I say hen night, but it was a small group of friends round for dinner and pampering from beauticians, very chilled). They were supposed to be travelling down from Birmingham (about 2.5 hours away). They didn't text until most of the way through the evening just saying 'sorry - got wasted last night and too hung over to drive'.

I was really gutted as they were such good friends. One came on the wedding day, but the other failed to turn up again.

I went to her wedding three years ago, and I haven't seen her since. I have had Christmas cards from the other friend, but that relationship has also died a death really.

It is really out of order to do this, I think.

Numberfour · 14/04/2009 20:36

i would be gutted if this friendship ended! but i cannot bring myself to reply to the "sorry" email yet. one word, that was it.

must have been horrible for you, ineedmorechoc. some friendships do just come to an end, don't they.

not sure about my situation, though. i am so stressed about a few other things that the last thing i need is a show down with a coke head friend.

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Mooseheart · 14/04/2009 20:51

Numberfour, I am a little at your comment:

"i know that if i make a fuss they will bitch andmoan about me calling me an fucking this that and the other."

Do you really want to be friends with people who will speak of you in this way?

I do understand the whole coke thing and the selfishness it causes, (I paid many a trip to the Powder Room in my day), but by letting them get away with it, which you are by not telling them how upset they've made you, you are pandering to this ultimately childish and selfish behaviour.

BecauseImWorthIt · 14/04/2009 21:05

You can't let them not know how you feel.

It may be the drugs, but they do have to realise that you are a friend who won't be there for them forever, and that if they really value you and your friendship that they will not do this to you again.

No excuse for such bad manners.

Numberfour · 14/04/2009 21:07

mooseheart, you have a point. i know that they will moan and bitch about me........ but then i have been doing the same about them. and it is said that if everyone knew what their friends said about them then no one would be friends with anyone else! we all talk about our friends in one way or other (or is it only me ?. but i see your point.

i will prob have it out with them another day. as i said, got a lot on at the moment and i cannot face a show down now.

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NancysGarden · 15/04/2009 11:29

Sorry for butting in but 2 friends of mine who happen to make a gay couple, who also happen to be part of the clubbing scene and fond of coke, never let us down over arrangements. Sure drugs can change a person, of that I have no doubt but I think (after a certain age), life choices do not make a person selfish. There's got to be an element of that already IMO.

(Sidge: ditto, v up and down. We'll have to start a new thread)

Yes, sorry for hijacking

Numberfour · 18/04/2009 19:56

i received an email from friend two days ago asking: "how much shit am I still in?"

This was my reply: sorry - bit long!

"I am not really sure.

At first I was upset and angry with you because I felt that you were being rude and disrespectful to the 3 of us. I felt that partying it up was more important to you than keeping an arrangement with us. But then I realised, as I have always known, that you love me a lot and don't intend to be rude or disrespectful. I also wondered perhaps if you were taking the fact that I love you so much for granted, and that I would tolerate your rudeness because we are "close".

It is the third or fourth time that you have done this to me, DH and DS. What made it particularly upsetting this time is that on Saturday evening we as a family had a £50 Sainsbury's voucher and £45 cash til I was next paid by my families. I also had to make two trips to XXX because my course is coming to an end and I have two full days of lectures 20 and 27 April. Because you were coming for lunch, I obviously spent money we could ill afford so that we would all have a lovely meal together as we love doing. It was going to be a real stretch to eke out the funds til late April.

What was also upsetting was that it was Easter Sunday - we had been at my Aunty B's place on Friday and left late Saturday afternoon because we had arrangements for Sunday. Had that not been the case we would have stayed on another night or we would have arranged to do something else that day.

Then of course I had the difficult task of explaining to DS that you two weren't coming. DH is less than impressed and has nothing really to say about the fact that we spent money we did not have, that we kept a day on a long weekend open because of plans that we had with you and that we were let down again.

I wanted to tell you this week how upset I was, but I could just see how you would turn it around and probably call me a fucking this that and the other. You made it almost impossible for me to be upset by saying that I should understand because we are close. In other words, I would be out of order NOT to accept the situation because we are close. If I did not accept it, it would be me that was being unreasonable.

Having said all that, I know that you did not intend to let us down. I know you were looking forward to it. I know that you love coming to us and you know that we love having you. So it is not about you disrespecting us or being rude. It is not really a case of whether you are still in shit. The reason why you do this is because you are a coke head. Cocaine comes first. It always will. It will always be that way unless you somehow manage to break the addiction.

If you like, we will talk again and continue being friends as we had. But coke will be number one always. You know that. And you know that I am not being a fucking this that and the other by saying it. You can be as pissed off with me as you like about this email. It won't matter next time you are snorting shit off a toilet seat.

I love you so very much but you will probably find that some of your friends, like me and my family, cannot compete with cocaine."

And then this was his reply:

"ow.

Your points are all valid (cutting - but valid and true.). I can but apologise and try at some stage to redeem myself. There is alot behind this and not sure where to start. But then also not sure where to turn either.

Please do understand that I do love and adore all 3 of you. Will try a more sensible e-mail tomorrow.

BF

p.s. Not pissed off at you at all. Just sad a what I have done."

So I am really glad I was blunt. He understands why we are disappointed and I don't feel as if I am lying to him about why I was pissed off.

Nancysgarden, your post was not a hijack. you made an interesting point. Thanks.

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