Trying to navigate no one coming to my birthday as a 30 year old single father

I invited some close friends from high school who had all confirmed that they would come.

We used to meet every weekend when we were in college but now with work and family its less, which i can understand, but still we see each other everynow and then.

I put all my time on my work, my three year old son who i share 50/50 custody with my ex wife and i dont really do anything fun besides playing videogames and going to the gym.

People at work like me and praise my work, but i didn´t invited them because i dont feel the same level of trust that with my former close friends and i thought it would be a nice moment to catch on with them, we had seen each other two weeks ago at the birthday of another friend and two months before that at the baby shower of another.

Everyone had said they would come but come the morning of the day, one couple said in the group chat they wouldnt be able to come, i thanked them for letting me know, then went out to buy a bottle for the afternoon, asked in the chatgroup what they would like, three said wine, i bought the bootle and after that everything was radio silence, when the hour came i asked how everyone was doing, and no one answered. A girl from the group who im not that close to wrote me an hour later telling me that another couple of friends told her they wouldn't be coming and subsequently wouldn't be able to drive her to my place. She asked if she should still come and i thanked her and told her that it was alright but she didnt had to, she is married and i didnt want her husband to think anuything weird with her spending the afternoon alone with me. In total 5 friends who confirmed didnt wrote something explaining why they didnt came. I didnt say anything in the chat group.

I am not angry, i am not crying, im trying to navigate this moment with dignity and serenity, i just feel like an outcast since my divorce. I am a good father, good worker, i have a good relationship with my ex who left me cause she wanted to be with another person. I do everything to raise my son as a good man, like my father raised me, and i feel proud of being a good father like him, but beside my workmates i feel like an outcast. Its like no one really wants to be around me since the divorce, like i am a stranger and i can only focus on my son, work and my hobbies, but the rest of the world has been closed to me.

Posted Aug 31, 2025, 12:12 AM UTC

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