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Can we talk friendships after baby?

I do not have babies yet.....bff just had one. I have talked to her a couple of times since the baby came ...on the phone. I am avoiding calling her to give her and her DH some time with the baby. I'm curious though.... how should we go about keeping up with eachother? What has worked for you? Just a note she is another city. I thought maybe emailing would work....so that she can email back when she gets the chance to....any ideas would be great! I just know our hour long conversations will change into five minute ones now=( but that's life right=)

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Re: Can we talk friendships after baby?

  • E-mail works great for me. That way I can get to it when I have the time to devote to what I am saying. I work, so I also utilize my commute time to make phone calls and catch up with friends. Conversations are not as long as before, but I am still able to say hello and catch up on the major things.
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  • Ask her what will work best for her.  Tell her that you haven't been calling as much because you're trying to give them space. 

    fwiw - I still have plenty of time to keep up with friends.  My mom, sister, two close friends are all in a different city, and I talk to each of them every week.  Sometimes for an hour :)

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  • Ah, my friendships have changed DRAMATICALLY since I had DS.  :(  Most of my closest friends live in San Diego and we talk a lot less than we used to.  I try to call people as often as I can on my commute home from work but most of my friends are still at work since it's 2 hrs behind.  I send a lot of emails and messages on FB.  I know it's not ideal but I just don't have a lot of spare time right now. 

    Sometimes I just realize that there are certain friendships that I've had for so long that we'll be friends for ages - regardless of how often we talk right now.

    Oh and chat is a godsend.  I'm on gmail most of the day so I can quickly check in with a few of my best friends about 1x/week.  

    Good luck!

     

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  • Honestly for me, the friends we had and we getting closer with before H have all but gone away. we don't get invited to stuff anymore. or they flake out on us. It sucks.

    hubby can go to happy hours with them, but it is frustrating and hurts.

    Over the last year I've made an entire new set of friends that I'm elated to have and they totally rock, but it does still hurt that the others just blew us off. 

     

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  • imageMrsRosie:
    I have a friend who just had her first baby two days ago.  I have been WAITING for this day to come ever since I had a baby, because I want her to understand how hard it is to have long phone conversations anymore.  She was always kind of a high-maintenenace friend that way.  She wouldn't respond to my emails and wanted to catch up on the phone all the time.  I'm not saying you are this way at all, but for me email is the way to go.

    heehee.... funny thing is that she is more of the talker. We actually have kept in touch really well through the years through email...Usually at work we email several times a week. We can both talk! LOL! I am just a researcher type of person...and always want to know the best ways to handle things before things get hard ya know? =) I'm glad that there have been some successes though. I think email will probably remain our best way of contact...plsu some visits of course.

    Sometimes I think people are misunderstood.....I think as friends we think new moms don't want to be bothered.....but in some cases I think the moms do want their friendships to remain ...well in some ways the same as they were. Maybe that's why so many friendships are lost through this stage.

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  • I vote for email.  But, I hate talking on the phone unless it's to exchange info on when/where we're going to meet up in person.  Plus, finding the time to talk on the phone is hard and even if you think everyone is satisfied/sleeping/playing quietly, you never know when screaming/crying is going to occur and I hate trying to end a conversation with crying in the background.  With email, I can ramble as long as I want/need to and I can do it anytime day or night.  Some of those relationships will stay strong regardless though.  I have a couple of friends where we've lived in different states, been in different places regarding dating/marriage/career/school/babies and even if we get together every couple of years, it's like no time passed at all and we just pick up where we left off.  The other friendships, meh, probably didn't need them.

    Definitely let her know you were intentionally giving her and her new family some space because I think any new parent appreciates that.

  • imagefjaril:

    Honestly for me, the friends we had and we getting closer with before H have all but gone away. we don't get invited to stuff anymore. or they flake out on us. It sucks.


    This. Blah.

    Our friends (without kids yet) have completely blown us off. Every once in a while they'll comment on a picture on fb and say "it's been too long, we need to get together" but when I try to plan something, they flake out. My advice is to keep in touch. E-mail is probably the best way right now so she can answer on her own time. Just because someone has a baby does not mean she's not the same person she was before and that she doesn't want to talk to friends anymore. 


  • imagewheninrome:

    Sometimes I think people are misunderstood.....I think as friends we think new moms don't want to be bothered.



    I think that's a big misconception..at least for me.

    Also, in no way am I saying you are like my crappy friends. I think it's great that you're asking for advice and still wanting to keep in touch.
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    I think email is best, but I would have LOVED if our friends had said, "hey, we want to be able to talk to you (or hang out or whatever) but we know you are super busy.  What is the best way for us to stay in touch?".  When people didn't call or email, we lost touch and those friendships changed.  Just telling her she is important to you and you want to do what is easiest for you would be great.
  • I actually hate email because it takes me a lot longer to type out an email than pick up the phone and call someone. But then again, I also hate texting for this very reason. My friendships haven't changed all that much. We call and see eachother when we can. They understand that I have other priorities right now so they aren't offended if it takes me a week or so to call them back.
  • images-a-r-a-h:
    I actually hate email because it takes me a lot longer to type out an email than pick up the phone and call someone. But then again, I also hate texting for this very reason. My friendships haven't changed all that much. We call and see eachother when we can. They understand that I have other priorities right now so they aren't offended if it takes me a week or so to call them back.

    this!

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  • For us, things didn't change until he got close to a year. Then suddenly he was a real person and they quickly began having adult only parties and then we stopped getting those invites.

    So we had almost a year of, "great nothing has changed this rocks" to dude, where's they go? :(

     

     

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  • Thanks Gilrs for the responses! It's always good to hear from others....I think the email thing just may work for us. I feel like becoming a mother is yet another test of balancing life.I'm sure things will be fine=)

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  • One of my BFF's now has 2 kiddos...I don't talk to her as much but then again I'm not a phone person. When we do talk on the phone it can be an hour phone call and half of the conversation might be me listening while she goes thru her kid's routines or putting her son to bed but I love being involved in those routines even if it is only via phone. Like when she tells her son good-night she'll hold the phone out and he'll say "Goodnight Keribells!"...I love that they know me and relate to who I am. So, our conversations have changed but I don't mind at all...love it!
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