ladies in your 50’s. How many close friends do you have?

[mumma24]

I have one close female friend. We text regularly and meet up once a week. We both work part time. Other friends I catch up with once a year. Most of them either work in the week or are looking after grandchildren and at weekends it’s their family time which I understand. I feel like I don’t really have many friends anymore. Anyone in the same boat ?

@Caz101x 😢 how do you feel? Who do you turn to ? Close family?

4.....
2 who live an hour away in opposite directions, who i see 3 or 4 times a year, and message regularly, 1 in the village i live in, and 1 about 10 miles away, who i see a couple of times a week
If I needed any or all of them in the middle of the night, they'd be there - and have been, as I would be for them.
I'm single, enjoy my own company, and don't wish I had more friends.

Lots. Maybe 10 really close friends.
I don’t have any close friends until I was about 40. They came from moving to a village, throwing myself into things etc. friends mean everything to me.

I'm 40's and have one close friend I see about weekly.

I have 3 other friends I've worked with I wouldn't call close, they don't know when my birthday is for example and I've only ever been in one of their homes (they've been to mine). I probably see them for coffee 3-4 times per year. They don't know each other.

Lots. And I say that as someone who’s had a rough time for the past eighteen months, and has withdrawn a lot into my own world to recover.

There is a group I run and we meet monthly , I'd say 6 of them are friends and we go for a coffee after and meet up once a month .
But true best friends , sadly none . Had who I thought was a friend but she dropped me when I became less useful due to illness ( no longer at her beck and call , unable to go on long trips out , not being able to drive her everywhere etc )

I have 5 friends who I could call & discuss absolutely anything with without judgement. 3 know each other - we’ve been friends since our teens. The other 2 are individual friends - ie they don’t know any of the other 4.

I have lots of people I would consider to be friends, but when I think about it, it’s maybe 10 years or more since I actually saw them, usually due to living far apart now, and I wouldn’t feel able to call on them in a crisis really.

2 but one is a fair way away geographically. I’ve been working full time in a demanding job but I’m considering a change to part time and much less senior. One of my reasons is to hopefully have more time and headspace to invest in friendships.

I have probably 6-8 really good close friends who I know will always be there if I need them - and me for them - and known them most over 30/40yrs tho one a few years but still is a close friend

then another prob 10 friends who chat/see regularly

and various others who may not talk to or see or text for a while but when we do it’s like no time has passed

I’m lucky to have these great ladies in my life

I loathe ‘ladies’ too.

Anyway, I have 6 very close friends, 2 of whom I either speak to or text daily. I have another 10 that I’m slightly less close to but still see often.

I have 3 sisters. I see them fairly often but I’m much closer to my friends.

Very lonely. I have a partner who works full time so I don't see much of him. Rarely see family, hardly got any and see them maybe once or twice a year. I've been house and bed bound for three and a half years with a completely debilitating health condition.

@IstillloveKingThistle
I’m very sorry for what you’re going through.
My best friend died in June from cancer aged 57.
It has definitely made me cherish my loved ones even more and made me less inclined to sweat the small stuff.
I’m still lucky enough to have 4 very close friends but they are not her.

One close friend, and not the closest of close, maybe meet up 2x/month.
I live alone & work alone, too. Not chuffed but haven't found a better way forward. There are other people I see maybe once a year who I can have honest conversations with, too.

This lady only has one close friend - you know the call at 2am kind. I have lots of acquaintances and people I call friends but I'm not close to them.

I think "women" is preferable.

3 but they all live very far away. 😪

@Cynic17 as an adult human female I prefer “woman/women” too. But I don’t mind “ladies”. I think it’s often a localised preference? Far preferable to “Cis Women” or any of the other current ways of referring to to us.

I have one best friend that I’ve known for 40 years, but I have quite a few less close friends that I see every few months or so. Mostly they are ex work colleagues who I see twice a year as a group, then individuals within that group I see more frequently. I suppose in many of those cases, I am the one that makes the effort to arrange get togethers, but keeping friendships going is important to me.

To those who have lost someone or are struggling with loneliness.