re: Friends Who Drift Apart

It's happened to me, and I've come full circle on it before in a few cases. Yes, all of the things you mentioned will happen. From what I've learned, I think they key is being more intentional about maintaining the friendships. Some times it's easier to maintain them, but depending on the circumstances it may require more of an intentional effort on both sides.

Sometimes it works, sometimes not. And like another poster said, you'll get new friends, people you really seem to click with and have a lot in common, etc. It could be from someone brand new, or someone you've been acquainted with for a while, but until that intentional step is taken to advance that relationship then that potential friendship may not develop, for the same reason old ones "drift apart."

Doesn't happen to me

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Marriage kids work etc and you get consumed in your own stuff. i wish I had put forth more effort with my old friends.

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marriage, kids and a career will be the biggest road blocks to your longtime friendships. the best thing to try to curb how far apart you drift is to get the significant others involved with double dates, etc. it's extremely difficult to maintain the friendships when one friend is married and the other is single, as both people are in completely different places in life.

As much as a pain in the as Facebook can be, it does allow you to maintain relationships with the people who have been important in your life. I've reconnected with many old friends who I would have never otherwise seen again.

As much as it does suck, theres also something kind of cool about knowing that even though you havent spoken in months, the next time you do see each other you can still talk for hours and slip straight back into it like the old days.

To me, you gotta have friends in life, especially to keep you balanced when it comes to family drama, which we've all dealt with in one form or another. You need friends to turn to in good times and bad times. Family is extremely important and yes, they should take precedence over friends, but friends meet a unique need in a person's life that everyone needs.

As you get older, you will find that some of these friendships renew themselves.

Life moves on. People marry, move away, have children, get sick, have sick family to care for, have more job responsibilities, etc. Priorities change. Nothing wrong with that.

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So, how many of y'all have gone through this, having a once close bond be disintegrated over time?

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This is literally happening to me right now with one of my best friends through high school and college, so since about age 15.

He's busy with work and his GF all the time, one of those types that finally got in a serious relationship for 2nd time at best, already moved in with him after 3 months, and I just don't care to be around them anymore. Always saying "baby" and one night they argued because he did the laundry and didn't leave any for her to do cuz they just bought a new like $1200 washing machine. Like wtf.

Used to hang out probably 2-3 times a week, slowly became once every few weeks, and now it's maybe once a month. Used to text almost daily, worst case ever few days, as it stands right now haven't texted once in over 2 weeks.

Just part of life.

I've had two close friends since kindergarten, another four since middle school, and three more from college. Only two of them live close to me - the others are scattered. Every year six of us get together and go out of town for a trip together. The others I see from time to time and talk/text often. I consider myself very fortunate to have these friends and all of us are married with kids. We make the time when we can.