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Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

To withdraw from toxic friendship group ?

186 replies

Judygiraffe · 30/09/2021 10:08

So I'm 29, and am friends with a group of girls I met at secondary school , age. 29. Last year one of my friends , "left the group" as she felt it was toxic. She said she felt that both of us were just there to make the others feel better about their own lives , and I'm beginning to agree.

The queen bee married her childhood sweetheart at 22. At the time , because k wasn't in a long term relationship , I had a few more sexual partners than her. She'd regularly make comments to imply I was a slag, e.g. "I'm sorry, but your not discarded vagina is just not as sacred as ours."

However the marriage broke down when she was 26, ( she works at a university , she cheated on him with one of her 19 year old undergraduate students). Immediately after the marriage broke down, she signed up to dating sites and was having multiple sexual encounters, ( including threesomes), with men she met off the internet. She never apologised for repeatedly calling/ implying I was a slut previously, and instead went on to judging and making harsh comments about people she felt hadn't had enough sexual partners , ( she's now changed from judging people she feels have too much sex, to judging people who have to little sex).

Despite this , I was supportive of her during the time of her marriage breakdown. She'd ring multiple times a day, and I was supportive. Yet we went out for a meal with another girl in the group a few weeks later, and she rveeted back to openly mocking me for sleeping with more people than she had in front of the other girl, ( at this point, she had actually slept with many more people than I had, but didn't want the other girl to know this). I didn't say anything to reveal she had been having threesomes / sleeping with more men, as I didn't want to embarrass her.

She regularly gives the , ( unasked for) opinion that Lucy* , ( another girl in the group), "doesn't know how to be single" and berates her for getting together with her new boyfriend too quickly after s relationship break up. Despite this , she was signed up to online dating sites within days of her own marriage breaking down....

She regularly mocks me and Lucy for making "bad choices in relationships" but skirts over the fact her first husband had a lot of issues, ( he'd regularly shout racist abuse out the car windows at other drivers, would regularly shout "j , get the f out if my chair, I want to sit next to my f* wife" at group meals), and that she then dated on her undergraduate students.

She regularly makes comments about Lucy's tattoos being badly drawn and tacky, despite the fact she herself has tattoos.

The queen bee told her new boyfriend I had previously been raped, and he casually brought this up in conversation the first time we went out for lunch together, which left me feeling awkward. He regularly gives pseudo diagnosis's to members of the group , ( one evening he repeatedly told me I must be autistic cos I didn't look people directly in the eye, and refused to listen despite the fact I wa getting tearful and trying to explain I have a diagnosed visual impairment that makes that difficult). He also tells anyone that will listen that Lucy* had classic abandonment issues due to the fact her parents immigrated abroad when Lucy was 19.

We also have a mutual aquantance who has a mild learning disability, ( still functioning enough to work, drive , live independently etc). She has recently announced an engagement to a lovely man, ( I have met him), and instead of saying congratulations, all they can do is laugh and mock cos she had a broken engagement to someone else four years previously.
Am I right to just slowly stop bothering with the group ?

OP posts:
Pugmumm · 30/09/2021 10:17

OP I gathered my opinion before I even finished. The fact you are even on here trying to rationalise this to yourself. I have been in a very similar situation and I LEFT the group after years. I promise you will feel a lot better.

The comment about your vagina is complete disregard to anyone let alone a so called friend! You wonder what they say behind your back.

I don't like the sound of the 'queen bee' I've come across so many of them and stay well clear 😂🤦🏻‍♀️ good luck 🤞🏻

Doublevodka · 30/09/2021 10:17

I wouldn’t slowly stop bothering with them, I’d quickly stop bothering with them. They sound like arseholes and life really is too short to waste time with unpleasant people. Move on and spend time with decent people who don’t mock their friends.

Noshowwithoutpunch · 30/09/2021 10:20

You are right to distance yourself from them.
They sound absolutely awful.
I'd have stopped seeing Lucy after she started implying I was a slag.
What do you say when she talks about the badly drawn tattoos and the girl who has recently got engaged? Do you join in or sit quietly?
They're toxic and not friends at all.
People will also start ( if they don't already) thinking that as part of the group you are just like them.

GummyBearWhere · 30/09/2021 10:34

Ghost

lovemenot · 30/09/2021 10:41

What a bitch she is. Dump now. You don't need that toxic crap in your life.

Marjoriedrawers · 30/09/2021 10:43

I didn't even need to read all that to think we'd are you wasting your time on that awful woman for? Just walk away. It IS toxic.

Mrsjayy · 30/09/2021 10:43

I bet it was the same palava at school ? but now you are older and maturer you don't have to put up with it your other friend got out do it too.

shivermetimbers77 · 30/09/2021 10:47

Walk away and don’t look back OP! They sound awful.

ZealAndArdour · 30/09/2021 10:52

I walked away from a friendship group after loads of bridezilla wedding drama and have no regrets. I was worried the first few weeks that I was going to have this massive gaping hole of time and emotional support in my life that was going to make me sad but it’s made absolutely no difference to me.

Topically, I even asked my DP last night if I was any different since hanging around with them and he said I’m a lot less negative. Which I had absolutely no idea about.

Just walk away. What are you getting out of the friendship?

NatriumChloride · 30/09/2021 10:53

What the fuck? Is your self esteem really that low to allow yourself to be treated like that?? Why on earth have you been tolerating her bullshit?
Dump, dump and ghost the bitch. You’ll feel so much better for it.

radiatesshine · 30/09/2021 10:55

Wtf?! Leave, OP. How awful. You will feel so much happier for it.

Ihopeyourcakeisshit · 30/09/2021 10:59

Race, disability, tattoos,sexual partners, blimey what a jackpot.

Ladyraven0483 · 30/09/2021 11:00

They sound fucking awful. I don’t know why your friends with them

PinkFootstool · 30/09/2021 11:01

Why in the fuck would you spend time with this absolutely nasty piece of work?

Cut her off, tell her why, and block block block.

DameMaureen · 30/09/2021 11:02

I didn't even read it all. Get rid of this person .

JamieNorthlife · 30/09/2021 11:02

OP, you wrote that she abuses you emotional but you still try to protect her and avoid embarrassing her.
This is not a friendship, it's a toxic abusive relationship.
Replace "queen bee" with bf/gf/partner/Dh/Dw and you get an abusive relationship.
Why are you enabling her to be a queen bitch?

chipsandgin · 30/09/2021 11:04

Fuck yes. Get new friends or spend time with other friends you already have that are nice human beings.

If that group is unconnected to your other friends I’d go for a pre-prepared ‘tell it like it is’ speech, very publicly, making sure it’s payback time for your Queen bee - with a mic drop ending when you do ‘withdraw’.

Or just back off gently…the first option would be more fun though ;)

fumfspos · 30/09/2021 11:06

"I'm sorry, but your not discarded vagina is just not as sacred as ours."

I only got as far as this before I knew what I'd suggest you do...
get rid. Immediately. Just ghost them.
They are absolutely awful.

I have no idea why you hung around after making comments like the above and then calling you a slag to all and sundry. Absolutely awful.
Why are you hanging around to be their punching bag??

gailplattshairbrush · 30/09/2021 11:08

Sounds like she is deeply insecure about anyone or anything that differs slightly to what's going on in her life...happily married and she's jealous of those who are single. Single and she's jealous of those in relationships. And she probably massively competes with those who are at the same life stages as her too.

There's friendly banter then there's vile bitchy put downs. This clearly is the latter. I would withdraw immediately but before I did I would have to call her out. In response to a dig I would have to very calmly say 'why do you have to say things like that to me? Are you ok?'

It won't go down well but if you've already decided to check out of the friendship anyway then who gives a shit? You will be much happier without this sort of toxicity in your life.

Justbecauseofit · 30/09/2021 11:10

Sounds like it's not so much the group but the queen bee (unless I misread?)

Someone clearly hasn't moved on since high school, she will have no friends if she carries on. She sounds awful. Ditch the bitch, life's too short to put up with that crap, especially at this age!

Cas112 · 30/09/2021 11:10

She will obviously just be very insecure about herself which means she berates others to make herself feel better. Cut her off, it wont get better.

AphroditeGoddessOfLove · 30/09/2021 11:15

I cut my toxic school friends off when I was 23 and I don't regret it at all. They made me miserable and wore me down. I always felt I was in the wrong.

Anyway, fast forward 8 years and I have a nice life and have achieved lots of things I've always wanted while they live lives I know that they don't want and haven't achieved the things they wanted to.

PearLime · 30/09/2021 11:16

Oh dear this sounds horrible.

I think you can still see others in the group. They sound nice, it's just one person who is toxic. The others sound really nice.

Some of the behaviour on here is horrific. "Slut" shaming, laughing at disabled "friends", telling intimate secrets to partners, making you cry due to misdiagnosing autism.

Please dump this hideous woman! Hang out with your other friends. Love life xxx

nordicnorth · 30/09/2021 11:19

They sound like absolute cunts! Drop them like a hot shit! Don't bother doing it slowly!

Chachachawoo · 30/09/2021 11:40

Just walk away. Block, delete and don't look back even if they beg.
None of that is healthy or decent behaviour