While I think that everyone needs to have friends - - I do think that friendships are more important to Females overall.

Hence why they cannot seem to go to a restaurant restroom alone!
Lol!

My husband and son are on the spectrum, and this is why they don't have close friends, and what friends they have, they are content to see them rarely.

But neurotypical men? All my friends' husbands have lots of friends and see them pretty often, except the ones far away.

Draw the correct conclusion, OP.

There are a lot of DHs mine included that don't have friends and don't want any. He says hes not lonely. So you can't assume all men are lonely like that.

My DH has no close friends and it majorly bums him out as an extrovert. He has a hard time connecting with other men and his close friends from college etc have all moved away and aren't good at keeping in touch. I feel sad for him. I am the source of all of our social engagements. This is by the way universal among my friends husbands as well. They are all friendly with each other if we force gatherings but would never initiate on their own to do something or get even remotely deep beyond what's going on in the sports world. He has no hobbies. He just works long hours and our family life is all outside of that.

No but he’s not lonely.

There is no male loneliness epidemic… check your algorithm!

Yes, DH has a lot of friends. He is active in a hobby that meets in person and online weekly, and also active in our church and related volunteering. He is an introvert, by the way, not an extrovert or a loud personality.

The "loneliness epidemic" is just the natural consequence of people declining to join any group effort. It's more common with men because women tend to default into the type of volunteer tasks that cause them to meet other people, but it was evident across genders during early pandemic years when it became obvious that many people had no community involvement at all outside of the office.

My DH doesn’t really have close friends, but has buddies he’ll golf or fish with, or grab a beer together. We have “couple friends” that we see periodically for dinners.

I adore my friends and talk to a couple of them weekly, almost daily, and several that I’ll be in touch with every few weeks. I am an absolute extrovert. (Which is part of why I like forums so much - I like interacting.)

My H has no friends at all. None. Zero. If he died tomorrow no one would be at his funeral. All he does is work.

Very common. Some fathers at my DD's school organize a happy hour every couple months, and for some of them it seems to be their own social outing they go to.

Anonymous wrote:My husband has friends but they mostly just talk about sports and bands and only meet up for games and concerts. I bet DH could not name his friends’ children.

Yikes

My husband has friends but they mostly just talk about sports and bands and only meet up for games and concerts. I bet DH could not name his friends’ children.

Mine has friends. But he does make an effort.

His best friend from college lives in a different city and they see each other about 2x a year.

Other friends are local and they see each other for things like sports games, concerts, drink at the bar, etc.

We also have a lot of mutual friends and I would say 85-90 percent of both of our social lives is doing stuff together with other families/couples. I drive most of the logistics of this, but he will also initiate and has formed real friendships in these groups. I see lots of other men in these types of circles who have friends, even if it's probably their wives who are driving the get togethers and may have made initial connections.

Anonymous wrote:Curious, do you husbands have friends? If they do how often does he see them? DH can go years without seeing his close friends.

I don't think my husband has any friends at this point. If you go years without seeing or talking to someone, you are not friends anymore. I think it's quite sad and pathetic.

Mine might be an exception in that he is *extremely* extroverted and wants to see people all the time, has a standing monthly Skype call with his old high school friends, has two annual visits to old friends that he always wants me to join, etc.

In general it’s great for him from a mental health perspective but honestly, as an introverted woman, it has also posed challenges for me in our relationship. There are many times where I have to remind him to stay home and take care of essential home stuff, we have had to reach compromises about how many trips I can reasonably take to visit his friends given that I also have friends and family I need to see, etc. But it’s certainly better than him gaming or moping all day so we work to compromise.

Curious, do you husbands have friends? If they do how often does he see them? DH can go years without seeing his close friends.