Do you have any close friends you have not seen at all since the pandemic started?

[Anonymous]

DH and I have a couple friend we've been close to for a few years who we've spent a lot of time with. Since the pandemic started, they just have not been willing to get together, even outside, even doing something outdoors like just fishing. I've gotten together outside with a few other friends with kids just so our kids can get together, and I've gone on hikes with two other friends. But these particular friends-- they are a little older, too and don't have kids-- keep saying we'll get together again soon. And it never happens. They're both very healthy, so I don't think that's the issue. Maybe it's just me and my own expectations. I sometimes wonder if some people just don't want to deal with having to wear a mask around friends. I do know they have gotten together with a neighbor because my friend had mentioned that at one point this summer.

Strangely, it seems like it's easier with the kids around because the default place to go is a playground. With these friends I'm talking about, we'd usually have dinner parties or see a movie, so maybe they just feel the usual course of action for seeing us is out of the question. Just makes me sad. I know this isn't going to end with the vaccine, either.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if this is the case here, but I have a couple friends who we have said something similar to, and who we haven't seen. DH and I are young and healthy, but we both have contact with high risk individuals so we are being very careful, and our perception is that these friends have been quite reckless during COVID, so we don't want to see them in person. We still like them as people and don't want to make a big issue of it, I don't want to be that person chastising them, but we don't feel comfortable being around them right now. The friends we do see - only outside - are living their lives with similar risk profiles to us.

[Anonymous]

I haven't seen a single friend since last March. We're in the home stretch before full vaccine availability and I'm not about to blow it now just to do something dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if this is the case here, but I have a couple friends who we have said something similar to, and who we haven't seen. DH and I are young and healthy, but we both have contact with high risk individuals so we are being very careful, and our perception is that these friends have been quite reckless during COVID, so we don't want to see them in person. We still like them as people and don't want to make a big issue of it, I don't want to be that person chastising them, but we don't feel comfortable being around them right now. The friends we do see - only outside - are living their lives with similar risk profiles to us.

This. We stopped seeing ppl who were taking risks we weren’t comfortable with. It’s nothing personal — people just have different risk tolerance during a pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't seen a single friend since last March. We're in the home stretch before full vaccine availability and I'm not about to blow it now just to do something dumb.

+1. I miss my nephews so much. But we FaceTime daily.

[Anonymous]

Soooooooo many. It sucks.

Lots of my friends live far away, so obviously that’s out.

We don’t have a car, we rely on public transit and walking. We’re not willing to get on public transit right now. So we’re just limited to our walking radius. So people who were a quick metro ride away are now unreachable.

We also have one immuno-compromised friend who is being super careful and is not even will to see people masked, outdoors.

[Anonymous]

It’s a pandemic. No, we don’t want to see you. And as for friends with and without children - I find that the ones without aren’t starving for adult company as much.

[Anonymous]

I have not seen any friends since the summer. And only 3 separately outside.

[Anonymous]

Me. I saw good friends once in fall when it was nice out. That’s it. I’m focusing on kids going to pre school and staying healthy.

[Anonymous]

I have only seen a couple of my closest friends outside for very brief periods of time. Pretty much everyone I'd be willing to risk seeing either has risk factors themselves or lives with someone in a high risk category. I'm hoping that by summer, everyone that wants to be will have been vaccinated -- and we can get back to interacting face to face again.

[Anonymous]

Yes, all of them. We don't get together with friends. Not since March of 2020.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I miss them a lot.

[Anonymous]

Your friends are being extra careful. You must respect how they feel. Just keep in touch and before too long you will be able to resume friendship in person.

[Anonymous]

Yes, of course.

[Anonymous]

I haven’t personally seen any of my friends since March of last year.

I have kept in touch by telephone and online.

Which has helped me tremendously at not feeling lonely and isolated.

My biggest worry is that when life returns to normal again (🤞🏼), that I will have lost many of my friends.
Hopefully that will not happen, but so much time has gone by....