having/making/keeping friends as a lone parent

[daisiesinmay]

Anyone else find it hard? I do live in an especially couple-y area I think, have only met one other lp. Don't have lots of free time, so it makes it hard to have the time to put in to friendships. It can feel quite hard because married women seem to keep me at arms length often, single people either get coupled up and disappear or get annoyed I've not got much time to do things. This is all pre pandemic obviously. I'd like to make new friends but still don't get much free time.. it can all feel impossible

Totally hear you. Live in a very family / couple type area and I’m finding that even though I’ve started going to groups now restrictions have eased, people don’t seem too sociable. Also have an Nct group (was online due to covid so we didn’t meet) but even they often don’t reply to WhatsApp messages asking how people are. I kind of assumed people did Nct etc to make friends but isn’t seeming that way in reality.

Have you tried the Frolo forum?

I haven't heard of Frolo Keepitonthedownlow will look it up, thanks

Cloudyrainbows321 I think with Nct it's the luck of the draw but you would think people would want friends like you say - maybe the pandemic is affecting things there. Do you have a one o clock club nearby if they still exist?! in case that's more sociable, but not sure if things like that are open yet. It's harder as a lone parent though for sure.

I agree.

I was amazed after my marriage ended how hard it was to socialise. I had very small children & no help & their father didn't take them at that stage. But how left out I was. I had several very good male friends, known for years through a previous job. Their wives made it very clear they didn't welcome is being in contact.

It seemed so bizarre I couldn't believe it, but it was the case.

These people knew me for decades & I thought knew the type of person I was. It would seem like fancying my brother to even look at my friends that way.

In terms of other friends, when I worked p/t, I could meet school mums for coffee. It was pretty superficial tho. Once I returned to full-time work, I couldn't and feel like I developed a persona for work, and while I'm friendly with people in work, there hasn't been the opportunity to have closer friendships, partly due to my family commitments and partly due to my senior-ish role in work.