Reply to Parents- tell me about your friendships with childfree people

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I had kids starting in my mid 20s so way young for this area and had to navigate a lot of friendships like this.

If you don’t like kids it’s never going to work. If you do like kids please be sure to make it clear to your friends that you love their kids. I had a friend who had a fit because I had to bring my toddler to dinner with us, and it made me so self conscious and gunshy about making plans later.

On the flip side, my childfree friends are such a lifeline to me. They never judge me for mommy stuff (they don’t even know my 2 yr old shouldn’t still be drinking from a bottle for example) and also let me have conversations and experiences from my pre kid days.  [/quote]

OP here. I appreciate this perspective; thanks for the detail! I love kids (work with them) and very happy to do some kid activities, go to parks, etc. I’m sure I will also want some solo friend time too, but hopefully those desires can be balanced [/quote]

I would say don't give advice on child rearing. No one ever really wants to hear that and, even though you may very well know more than a first-time mom because you work with kids, there's no way for it to come off other than sanctimonious.

Or maybe it's just me. My (childfree for now but wants kids) best friend likes to give a lot of unsolicited advice about child rearing (for example, how to make one's kid into a good eater) and I love her but it drives me up the wall. I find that my friends with kids don't do this. Only my friends without kids. I love spending time with her but I feel like I can't talk about anything family-related because she'll either tell me I'm doing it wrong or, if I vent, say I don't sound happy. So we just stick to non-family topics all the time, which is also fine, but at this stage with young kids, basically my life is work, kids, and house issues! Not much going on over here with hobbies except for cooking and reading.[/quote]

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