Boyfriend > Friends?

Balancing between your friends and your boyfriend: it can be done!

We all know it’s all too easy to forget everything else when your days are filled with hearts and unicorns, but if you want to keep your friends, stay a friend!

Many people complain bitterly about friends who get other halves and abandon their circle of buddies, and I’m sure you can remember at least one friend you’ve lost touch with because they stopped hanging out once they got a boyfriend. I’d like to tell you now that it’s entirely possible to make time for all the people you hold dear to you, it’s just a matter of HOW and of ensuring that nobody feels lost and abandoned.

The first step you could try is to engineer a meeting between your friends and your new love. There’s a chance that they all hit it off and get on like a house on fire, in which case you’re safe and everything is coming up roses. If you’re not careful, though, you MAY end up constantly going out on group dates, and not getting enough time with your man; so sometimes you may have to put your foot down and insist on alone time! In another extreme case, both parties may hate each other on sight. This is where you put your best diplomatic skills to use: find out what it is that one doesn’t like about the other and try to present each party in the best light possible. After all, you love both sides: they should definitely have positive qualities galore!

Now, if you’re in a relationship where your friends and your boyfriend are neither BFFs or mortal enemies, you’d probably find that while they don’t object to spending time together, they would rather keep it an occasional thing. But what if you used to do random girly mani-pedi sessions with your friends or hang out almost everyday? You would obviously want to spend as much time as possible with your guy, which would inevitably cut into your girl time. You can’t combine your boyfriend and friends sessions; also, sometimes you would rather snuggle than paint nails and vice versa. It’s important here to communicate with everybody involved: tell your friends that you need to spend time with your boyfriend, and set a weekly date where you can all hang out and catch up. Likewise, with your boyfriend, tell him that you need occasional breaks to be with your girls! In fact, he probably has his bros who are also harassing him for abandoning them for you.

Above all else, make sure that your friends know that you still love them. You don’t have to spend 23 and a half hours a day with them, just show them you care in little ways – not unlike how you would show your boyfriend that you love him. Little treats, random phone calls, drinks dates… you would know better than I do how your friends would like to be treated because YOU’RE their friend. And don’t you forget it!

Images from: lucilleinthesky.com, cheerymerrysammy.blogspot.com

by: maylee