A woman has spoken out after admitting to hurting her friends’ feelings after turning down an invitation to a three-night women-only vacation.
Her reason? She didn’t want to spend three days talking about “babies and marriage”.
Taking to Reddit to share her story, the woman opted for anonymity but identified as a 27-year-old with eight close female friends.
Speaking of her friendship group, she revealed: “We have been friends for over a decade, since school. Now we don’t live in the same place, we meet up a couple of times a year for a weekend in an Airbnb. This use to be a weekend of good food, drinks, hot tub etc.”
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She then expressed contentment with her current single status and dating life, but lamented the predominant focus of their gatherings, which consistently revolves around engagements, weddings, and pregnancies.
“I have been invited on this years girls trip, I have said I can’t come. I didn’t originally provide a reason,” she wrote. “When queried, in person by my friend, who is pregnant – I told her the truth.
“I am not going because it’s a massive financial expense, for three days where we only talk about people’s upcoming engagements / weddings / babies.”
Yikes.
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She explained that although she is “thrilled for them all living the lives they want”, it’s simply not the way she wants to spend a weekend at this time in her life.
“My friend has since told me, she’s really hurt I am not excited for her, or our other friends,” she continued – despite the fact she’s already attended multiple weddings, baby showers etc.
She then put it to Reddit and asked: “So my query is [Am I The A**hole] for being truthful with the reason why I can’t go?”
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Fortunately, Reddit users empathized with her sentiments and underscored the natural evolution of friendships.
One person replied: “On the surface this seems like it’s just about engagements, weddings and babies. You go out of your way to be constantly supportive of them. However they don’t reciprocate that for you. They can’t relate to anything or want to relate to anything outside of their lives.”
Another added: “You went about this very diplomatically. You’re happy for them, but, since you’re not at the same stage, feigning excitement over someone’s breast milk is a bit much. I think she heard what you said but didn’t really listen.”
And a third wrote: “I’ve experienced this too — once people get married and have kids they seem to magically forget that not everyone else’s worlds revolve around the same things. You’re being a good friend by attending and caring about their life events, they should be showing interest and supporting you in your life events too — even if those aren’t a husband and children.”
What do you think of the woman’s predicament? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!