Hi
I'm hoping someone can help me out here.
I have a friend whom I've known since school. She's a really good friend and is always there to listen and help out if I need her. However she is really bossy and controlling and it's really starting to get me down as I don't know how to tell her without offending her and harming the friendship. I know I need to do something as the only way I seem to be able to deal with it is to keep my distance and that's not really how a friendship should be.
The bossiness can be anything from telling me what I should say to people/how I should reply to a text/email etc to telling me how to cook the meal if I invite her over for dinner. I feel as though she thinks I can't think for myself. I cant make a throw-away statement without receiving advice or instructions. eg "I'm hungry"
"Oh...you need to eat"
or
"My skin gets quite dry sometimes"
"You need to use moistruriser"
I can kind of work that out on my own thanks.
It even extends to having opinions or personal preferences about things that aren't reay that significant (eg the method I choose for hair removal). She always tries to talk me into doing it the way she does it when I'm happy with the way I do things for myself and don't care how anybody else does it.
I had loads of unwanted instructions during the pregnancy, and I know this is pretty common but when it's something that brought up first it just makes it more irksome.
I could go on but I've probably bored anyone who has read this enough by now.
Anyone had this experience and managed to have a successful outcome?