So my dilemma is this. My DC has made a solid best friend at school, which is lovely. They’ve been friends since starting so the friendship is strong & doesn’t look likely to fizzle out.
Recently I met BF’s parent for the first time and since then they’ve given some quite strong signals that they want to be friends with me, and want us to do social things together eg; arranging play dates where I’m also asked to stay, going to local cafe after school with the kids… trouble is I really don’t want to be friends with this person if I can help it.
I know it sounds awful, but they’re not a person that I want to be close to. The parent is easygoing, plenty of chat etc, but the couple of times we’ve chatted they let slip quite a few of their views & opinions which jarred with me (eg antivax conspiracies, covid is an outright hoax, seemed to be a fan of Putin 😳), views which made me think they were a bit of a crank. But our children are BFs and the parent has started putting the feelers out for a friendship. I get the feeling they don’t know many other parents at the school which is why they might be seizing the opportunity with me.
Does anyone have any tips on how to cool it on the friendship side of things? I don’t want to be rude or hurt their feelings. I’m resigned to the fact we’ll have to have a relationship on some level if our kids are BFs, but want to keep it business only 😄