How on earth do you make friends these days???

[U2lady1981]

Hi everyone,
Just wanted a bit of advice really. Apart from my lovely fiance, I don't have any close friends at all. Naturally, this leaves me feeling quite lonely and isolated. My fiance works away a lot and is away for weekends on a fairly regular basis. I don't begrudge him this as he is working overtime to pay for our wedding/honeymoon. As for the reasons why I don't have anyone to turn to friendship wise, I think several reasons have all combined to make this difficult. Firstly, I've moved house and so am living in a new area. Then, my best friend and I have fallen out due to the fact she didn't like my fiance (or rather the fact that I wouldn't be at her total beck and call anymore), my other best friend has moved away to London (I'm Derbyshire based). Also, I'm an only child and so don't have siblings to hang out with. Lastly, I know most people make friends at work, but due to me being a senior leader in my place of work, it's a bit 'them and us' e.g. staff arranging to do things without me because they don't want the boss there. Totally understandable, but on a personal level, it does make me feel really very isolated. Has anyone else been in this kind of position? If so, how did you get through it? Thanks in advance :) x

Are there meet ups through Mumsnet? I'm a teacher and have made a load of friends from a teachers' website. We meet up 3 or 4 times a year as a group but often more often in smaller groups. We have a secret FB group where we post all of the time as well. I've made some brilliant friends from using the internet in this way.

Ooooh what's the website called? x

It's true, the answer is to join loads of groups/clubs etc. Even if you don't like most of the people you meet, at least one or two will become friends. You can drop out of any activities you hate, but I guarantee you will find fun where you least expected.

Very true. As long as I can make friends with people I can have a laugh with, then it's all good. Will definitely look into joining some (non sporty!) clubs x

Good luck U2lady. You might not find a bezzie mate, but you're bound to find some nice people to do fun stuff with.

Thank you flash mob! And if anyone is local on here, please give me a shout x

I started posting on the TES website years ago and then one day (about 7 years ago) someone set up a thread about living by yourself and as I was at the time I started posting. In the end a number of us met in real life and then took the thread off the site but we speak everyday!

One girl moved close to another one and they socialise a lot together and a few others live close too and meet up quite regularly too.

Socialising can be hard but use technology to help you.

Hi OP. I am in Derbyshire too.
Think the last time I had a real friend, so to speak, was years ago, but you tend to drift apart when DCs come along.
I wish I had made more of an effort after leaving school to keep in touch with them.
Of course there is Facebook, and it's great when an old friend gets in touch. But it's not the same as they have spent the years since school building new friendships. so you end up feeling a bit of a peripheral.
I do envy the women in the school playground who always seem to gravitate to one another and chat. I tend to stand at the back, on my ownsome, as I am probably seen as antisocial. This is true in some respects as I hate small talk and would much rather have a deep and meaningful conversation with a complete stranger who shared my likes and dislikes.

Hi Yakky,
The last part of what you said sounds just like me! I absolutely hate small talk and much prefer to find out if I have the same likes and dislikes as someone else. At the end of the day, you do need to find things in common otherwise striking up a friendship is very hard. I'm really glad I'm not on my own in feeling this way and Yakky, I'm always about for a natter! X