I am a rubbish friend

[cruelladepoppins]

Feeling a bit down about the friendships I have allowed to fizzle out over the years ...

The usual ... moved for university, moved for work, moved after we got married ... now we have DCs and I work full-time, I am a very feeble friend. Always glad to hear from people, almost never initiate contact. Have huge extended family that I spend my spare weekends with (DDad hasn't been well). Don't invite people round much because we live in a place that's hard to get to. Which also makes getting babysitters a wee bit challenging ... in fact it's usually our friends who do the babysitting for us ... oh woe, am I a user?

Anyone in a similar boat, how do you manage?

I find maintaining friendships really hard, having moved about quite a bit like you.

I have to admit (feel strangely ashamed of this!) that I use facebook to keep connected with people - just a comment here or there. With some people, I write emails. I know there's such a thing as a phone, but I don't much like picking it up... Texting's good, though!

My house is not particularly accessible here, either. Tomorrow I'm heading off to a garden cafe with the 4 DCs (you'll have guessed I'm not in the UK...) and I've invited a few friends to drop by if they're free. Much less stress than trying to entertain, and less chance of taking it personally if they can't make it - which is my friendship problem (or one of...).