Multiple relationships in tatters

[Theunromantic]

If someone told me they felt nobody liked them, I'd suspect paranoia and try to encourage some perspective. It certainly feels at the moment though that I'm just struggling with people in general and surely I'm the common denominator here! Apologies in advance, this might be a bit of a long one.

One key relationship I'm concerned about at the moment is the one with my dad. He retired very early in his life and has been eternally available for chats ever since. We're very alike and get on really well. He's also a wonderful grandad and has a full day with my 2 year old DS every 1-2 weeks to help me out with childcare. Recently however, whenever I see him, he seems to be in a rush to get away and generally quite cold with me. Today I have a day off and my DS is at nursery so I asked if I could pop over this morning for a cuppa. He was hesitant and said no. Sure ok, that's fine but this is just another moment of feeling as though I'm just needy and a bit of a chore.

He and my mum are separated. I also wanted to mention my mum who I also have a great relationship with. We recently booked in our annual Christmas shopping day which I'm sure will be lovely but we had to choose a day on which my stepdad was at work. She refuses to spend time with me if my stepdad has a day off. Maybe that's ok? If someone asks me to do something when me and DH are off, I'll check with him first but ultimately if we have no plans, it doesn't stop me going ahead. Let me know if I'm alone on this one!

I hear so much about making the most of your parents while they're still around. I struggle though to strike a balance between what they either perceive to be clingy or selfish and stand offish.

I'm also really worried about one of my best friends who is acting really out of the ordinary and not responding to any of my messages. He mentioned lately that his mental health was suffering so his unresponsiveness is sort of concerning. Of course I'm not taking it personally but I want to ensure I'm handling this ok. I messaged a few days ago and said 'how is everything going? No pressure to reply straight away, just wanted to check in.'

Again, I'm sorry that this is lots of issues within one post but any individual advice would be amazing if you have any. Thank you.

Is this actually about the "best friend" who you'd like to be more than a friend if you're honest?

You get on really well with your dad and this change is recent. Why don't you just ask him if anything is wrong, there are a dozen possible explanations.
Ditto your mum, and though the step dad thing is annoying that's more likely to be down to their relationship than hers with you.
If you're friends is having a bad time likely that's affecting things, you could try to talk to him too, not about that but just generally how he is and nice things.
I don't think anything you've put in your post suggests anything obvious and the best way to find out is to have a proper chat with the person you're worried about.