This is a drama I haven’t faced before so if someone could help me navigate this…

There was a mom I met at our local park and we formed a friendship. I’ll call her Amy. Our sons loved playing together. A month or two later another mom (calling her Iris) apparently met Amy separately and she joined our group.

Not long after, Iris would ask me instigating/offensive questions about my faith and we would get into little debates about them (as much as kids allow us, cause let’s be real you can’t really hold a conversation with kids around.) But I’ll be honest, I didn’t enjoy Iris’s company anymore after this, and it seemed the feeling the mutual. We still remained civil. In our friend group we would say “hi how are you?” when we see each other and make very light conversation, and that’s it.

One day Amy didn’t come to the park, but I noticed Iris came later. I’m sure she noticed me too and I could tell she was trying to stay at the other end of the park, and even kept mentioning to her son to stay at the further part of the park. So it was apparent that she was ignoring me if Amy wasn’t there. It may be a bit petty of me, but after that day I ignored her and didn’t acknowledge her even when I saw her with Amy.

In normal circumstances I would’ve been fine not socializing with Iris, but the thing is, when Amy is there we’re all together in one group; and it’s going to get tiring ignoring her on purpose.

What should I do in this situation? Amy seems like a nice friend so I wouldn’t want to lose her friendship, but I don’t know how to manage when Iris seems to always be there with Amy.