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AITH for telling my friend I can't hang out as much as she expects?

Some context, me (29F) and friend (28F) have been friends for over 12 years. We met young so obviously our lives have changed drastically since we met but through that and some ups and downs our friendship has survived. She used to have lots of other friends so we would hang out two or three times a month, usually once or twice one on one and once in a group of people and that was perfect for both of us. About 6 years ago I met my husband and after dating for about two years we got married. My husband likes this friend and didn't mind having her third wheel sometimes when we would go out to eat, movies, concerts, what have you. (yes I was hanging out with her one on one way more often than she was "third wheeling) But it wasn't a big deal because we did not have kids or many commitments so me and husband still got lots of quality time together.

Well, last year we welcomed our first baby and husband started a new job with longer hours and higher responsibilities/stress in order to financially make it work for me to only have to work part time and be home with our son half the week. My friend was excited for us to have a baby and wasn't working a job when he was born so me and her ended up hanging out quite frequently during my maternity leave (like two times a week which is a lot to me as an introvert) and she was a great support system for me through my postpartum phase. Then things started to get weird....I noticed that she started to get very possessive over me and my baby. She would get annoyed if I said I needed a day to myself, or If someone else like my mother in law or a cousin was coming over to spend time with us. If we hung out on a Friday night she would ask to come over again on Saturday and when I said me and my husband and son needed family time just the three of us she would act hurt/disappointed. This resolved itself for awhile when she got a new job and was way busier and I thought it was just a weird phase and maybe she was going through something I didn't know about.

But it has gotten bad again to the point it's causing me quite a bit of anxiety. I'm back at work, my husband works long days during the week, so often we just want to have family time on the weekends and be together with our son as he will only be little this once. But we also do a very good job of balancing this with also spending time with friends, parents, siblings, grandparents, and friends and attending our church and it's social events. Through all of this I have still seen this friend AT LEAST two times a month, which I feel like is very reasonable with how my life is right now. I think it's important to note that she has lost touch with most of her other friends over the past year or so and I feel like she expects me to fill up her social calendar now. She recently expressed that she feels like she doesn't see me and my baby enough and that she's missing out on things with him. I explained that my life is the busiest it's ever been even though I'm working less and doing my best to balance parenthood, work, family, friends, and quality time with my husband and baby and still finding time for myself as I'm an introvert that needs alone time to recharge. And that twice a month is the most I can promise her right now. She expressed that we used to hang so much more (my maternity leave) and I said yes neither one of us were working then things are different now.

She said she understood and things were going good for while but now she is telling me that it hurts her feelings when I go do things and don't invite her, I asked her to clarify and she brought up things me and my husband did as date nights, or events we attended with family, and even taking our son to the children's museum as a family outing. I told her we need our own time together and our family time is important right now, and she asked what the harm was in her tagging along on those things? I explained I can't invite her along to everything we do as we need our space and time together. She said she understood but that it hurt her feelings and things have been tense between us ever since and she still constantly texts me asking to hang out and it causes me A LOT of anxiety to always be saying no more than yes knowing it hurts her feelings (still seeing her about twice a month)

AITA that this makes me not want to hang out at all because I don't feel like she respects me and my boundaries?

Posted Sep 11, 2025, 5:05 PM UTC

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