Parents may be in hamster balls too!

Wow, so I got almost double the number of visits I usually do with the previous post about the differences of priorities & schedules between single/no-kid people and parents.  I started to cheer a bit until... I saw that a good number of people jumped the page, and the average time was pretty low.  =S  I really hope I didn't offend those of you who are single or don't have kids because the sentiment definitely does not apply to everyone and even if it did, it isn't usually to the extreme of the person who submitted the question.

What I do hope is that it creates some better understanding to single/no-kid peeps and some relief of guilt to parents.  We do want to meet with our friends but we only have so much energy and much of it is depleted by kids and home tasks, forcing us to be much more selective than we ever thought we would or want to be.  Some parents are more lax, others are more strict - similar to the different student types one would meet in high school or university.

Here's something that might help.  I'm not saying all parents are introverts but I think there is some overlap in how to interact with those who may seem more unavailable.  Even more so with actually introverted parents (like me!).  Enjoy!

I love my single/no-kid friends, but...

Just a short post here.  I've somehow always been a bit ahead of my friends in stages of life (although they've always had better jobs than me!) but it wasn't until I was married for 5 years and having my first kid that I realized that was why some relationships were strained.  I found that my priorities were always a bit different which meant that my time was spent differently, a reality my friends were fairly puzzled by.  I wish I handled it better back then but ah well, it's in the past and I didn't fully understand what was going on either.

For those of you who are experiencing an adjustment with friends who don't have kids, particularly those who are still single, take a look at this "Dear Carolyn" response.  Sorry if you have trouble reading it as I didn't have the time to type it up!  If you can read it, I hope it helps give you the words, perspective and strength to work on your friendships and make them last.  Sadly, I think I'll need to let go (yes, it's been almost a decade and I had thought, until recently, I could resurrect things to "the ways they were") and work on current and new friendships.

How about you?  Are there friends beginning to drift because your schedule and priorities have changed since becoming a parent?  Have you had a chance to address it?  What have you done to accommodate or gain understanding from your friends?