Questions tagged [friend-groups]

Questions related to interpersonal skills in a friend group. Use this tag to ask about various skills that are commonly needed in a group of friends.

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Politely reject advice because I don't respect the source's judgment

Sometimes, I am given unsolicited advice. I consider the advice itself (of course), but I also consider the source, as the expression goes. Usually, the advice must be written off entirely because the ...
notmySOaccount's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
571 views

How do I kick one person out of a friend group, without alienating those who support them?

I have a group of friends I like to hang out with on discord nearly every evening. We have known each other for over a decade now and even if someone moved away, they'll still be online regularly. ...
Azzarrel's user avatar
  • 121
1 vote
1 answer
746 views

How to avoid someone in a group

Me and B, my best friend, 2 boys, were the core of a group of friends. C, a girl, became a core member by coming to almost every gathering we had. I started having feelings for her but long story ...
Headax's user avatar
  • 113
1 vote
2 answers
2k views

How do I let someone know I'm coming to their party?

This is something that I have never done before. It might seem trivial but I'm an overthinker. I heard about this gathering my friends are having and one of them said I should come. So I asked the ...
Max 's user avatar
  • 11
5 votes
0 answers
666 views

How to explain a group division for a game

I started holding an RPG game with five friends long ago. I'm the host for this activity. Out of these five friends, two proved to disturb the game in some way, but it wasn't an issue then. We ...
Erikus's user avatar
  • 151
16 votes
5 answers
6k views

How to encourage conversations beyond small talk with close friends

I had 2 friends in high school, and we were quite close. Then college life started, and we went to different colleges. One of them went to a college out of state. And so there was no physical contact ...
Amarylis Vaselaar's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
430 views

Dealing with a new clique

My research group has a new member who is more outgoing than anyone else and draws a lot of attention to himself. He likes socializing a lot more frequently than I prefer to and has a more-the-...
fourierwho's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
466 views

How to avoid awkwardness with an ex-acquaintance

Background: I have this acquaintance I have known for quite some time (approx. 2 years) over that time and he has grown to hate me. I have personally reached out to him to know what's wrong and he ...
AnonymousT's user avatar
94 votes
5 answers
20k views

How do I tell my internet friends I'm actually female?

So I joined this online group roughly 2 years ago for a specific purpose that I thought would be short lived. It's centered primarily around a sports team and I came there from a social media site ...
anonymous idiot's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
1k views

How to deal with a toxic group leader?

So I'm in this group of friends that have been around for a few years, over a few interactions I have developed a toxic relationship with one of the people in this group. I have tried to talk to him ...
AnonymousT's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
462 views

How to tell friends I am looking to move away?

I am 24, I have been in my job since graduating, and while I am well settled, I don't want to live here for the rest of my life and so I am looking for a job abroad. I have a group of friends that I ...
camille's user avatar
  • 11
2 votes
1 answer
536 views

If I find one person hard to understand, how can I encourage a second person to try and explain?

I am part of a small friends group that (used to) routinely meet. Something happened that I am unsure how I feel about. Bob asked me to attend a "meeting" with him and Joe. I was not told what the ...
hectorpepper's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
113 views

How to get friends(s) to confirm for certain if they are attending or not? [duplicate]

I think this is a fairly common situation. When trying to arrange something, some people don't like to commit so they say "maybe". This is a problem, because space may be limited or reservations may ...
user24051's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
852 views

How to express frustration that friend left without telling anyone?

I have a problem where I either say nothing or get abrasive when I try to get a person to stop doing something that bothers me. This is why I'm asking here. My friend (Bob) had invited me and another ...
user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
698 views

How to have someone work on being on time and communicate it if they're late?

I have a group of friends and one person is often late and gives misleading communication. Twice he made it sound likes he's close and "just parking his car" but takes another 20-30 minutes to arrive. ...
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
323 views

How to do you politely tell somebody to stop interrupting a conversation? [closed]

Participants: person A was telling a story; person B (me) asked a follow-up question while person A was talking (telling the story); person C (a friend) aggressively told me to stop interrupting. ...
RollingCompass's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
1k views

How do I convince my friends to move their group chat?

I am in a fairly large friend group - 12 people. We all go to the same school, but don’t interact much during the school day. Everyone in this group uses apple devices except one person - me. This ...
sadtriangle's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
1k views

How to deal with a depressed person who thinks people are uniting against her?

Let's call this person Alice. Alice is currently in therapy and taking drugs to treat a long lasting depression. Alice is also quite egocentric i.e. likes to be in everybody's focus and tries to get ...
infinitezero's user avatar
30 votes
3 answers
6k views

How to participate in group conversations as an outsider?

Background I moved about 1000 miles from home after graduating college, and most of my friends are scattered all over the US. I'm not an extremely social person, so I didn't make many new friends ...
Rainbacon's user avatar
  • 9,052
8 votes
6 answers
2k views

Explain to group of friends that I will not show empathy to other friend

Recently, a person in our group of friends, let's call her Rachel, was involved in a car accident. The problem is, she was drunk and driving a stolen car. To give a bit more details : there were two ...
user3399's user avatar
  • 4,687
42 votes
3 answers
25k views

Two people from small group of friends want to have a "meeting" with me. The circumstances are strange and give me a bad feeling

I have a small group of friends that get together and hangout. Usually we hangout on Fridays. We usually go to the same person's home. One person from this group (call him Bob) contacted me. He said ...
hectorpepper's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
3k views

How can I handle someone railroading conversations?

So I have a few fairly new friends. Most are very quiet and shy except for one person who is super confident, friendly and LOUD... lets call her Lucy. The other day the 6 of us had a barbecue where ...
Jesse's user avatar
  • 7,123
5 votes
3 answers
1k views

How to explain that some of my difficulties won't improve with my effort or by their teasing?

update: this question is about not pushing me harder for indirect hints. it's not exactly on sensory issue I'm on the autism spectrum. In a particular classroom, a gang of people started to get ...
Always Confused's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
368 views

Managing visitors to a terminally ill person

One of my parents, A, is going through the last months of cancer. They are forced in bed at home and constantly taking painkillers to manage the pain. When relatives and friends come to visit, there ...
Aconcernedchild's user avatar
6 votes
5 answers
1k views

How can I tell a friend about a future trip without upsetting another friend, who wants me to hold the truth about it?

Soon, I'll be going on a trip for one weekend; "Friend B", who is planning this trip, wants to exclude "Friend A" who will likely ask me sometime during the trip what I'm up to. "Friend B" reiterated ...
Curious's user avatar
  • 291
5 votes
1 answer
738 views

How do I make friends with people who I have possibly alienated without making it awkward?

A week ago I moved into a single-room college dorm. I have 5 neighbors who have quickly gotten to know each other and now it's like they've been friends for years. They all typically hang out in the ...
George McFly's user avatar
26 votes
3 answers
7k views

How to gently end involvement with an online community?

Since 2011 I'm a member of an online community for Animal Crossing players. Sadly many things are changing in gaming world and many of these changes combined with new interests which I have found in ...
Emiliano S.'s user avatar
  • 1,111
7 votes
1 answer
761 views

How to join an ongoing conversation without being rude?

I'm an introvert and sometimes when people are having conversations I usually tend to not engage. However, currently , I wanted to change my behavior, to be more social and engaging. And not to be ...
noobtubesnoop's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
200 views

How to make a group of friends when in a completely residential Indian university hostel? [closed]

I am twenty-four and will be joining a completely residential Indian university for post-graduation. I generally don't fall apart while making a first friend in my school or college life. However, I ...
user586228's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
1k views

How to avoid my friend tracking my lifestyle

Some friends are way too interested in our lifestyle and want us to share our whole lifestyle with them. I tell you my story, that I am one of the meritorious students of my institute, and 2 friends ...
Yash Mittal's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
595 views

How to contact and spend more time with the friends of my best friend?

Around a year back I met who I'd now definitely consider to be my best friend. She's always there and looks out for me. We are both busy but we see each other a few times a month and always have a ...
Suimon's user avatar
  • 1,581
3 votes
0 answers
261 views

Telling a friend I normally hangout with on a holiday, I don't want to this time [closed]

A national holiday is coming up :) I have a friend (call him Joe) I normally hangout with on this holiday. I also see him on a regular basis. This time I would like to hangout with a different group ...
user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
794 views

How to tell an acquaintance that there will be only me

A friend and I (both males) met a girl at university who is in the city as part of an exchange program. The 3 of us have been working occasionally together on university material. We get along well ...
josey455's user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
5k views

How to decline a wedding invitation from a friend I haven't seen in years?

Three years back somebody of my group of friends got a girlfriend. Ever since he got together with her, me and the other friends of the same group did not hear from him again, despite our efforts to ...
jdf's user avatar
  • 149
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

Money problems with close friends

Introduction I'm a male software developer at the age of 25 in Austria who started his career about 2.5 years ago. Before my "real" career I was quite a social loser, I screwed up in school ...
Insax's user avatar
  • 183
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

How do I deal with a friend group that I fear is making its more successful member upset?

I'm one of a close group of friends, we'll call them A, B, C, D, E and F. All of us are middle-aged. Of those, A (which is not me) is quite successful; he has his own home and family, a property ...
Mark Green's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

How do I get a classmate who is creepy to leave me alone? [closed]

My classmate and 'friend' is really starting to creep me out. It was obvious that he liked me and did weird stuff earlier this year, but I just shrugged it off. Now I’m starting to get creeped out. He ...
nicole's user avatar
  • 51
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

Colleague making me feel bad over a game

A group of colleagues and I are friends outside of work. We like to go out together. We found out most of us play the same online team-based, player vs player game. We added each other as friends and ...
Belle's user avatar
  • 8,050
10 votes
4 answers
2k views

Responding to a man about the fact that they had been kissed by force

Some time ago (four years ago), I was eating in the cafeteria with a friend (let's call him Arthur) and a group of friends (4 people). Arthur wasn't a part of our regular friends group (even though we ...
Ael's user avatar
  • 17.4k
1 vote
2 answers
972 views

How do I tell a friend that's trying to start another long distance relationship that it isn't a very good idea without hurting our friendship?

Context My friend (f) is trying to start another long distance relationship with a second person in our extended group of friends (I am neither of these people). The first relationship (w/ Person 1) ...
J Cover's user avatar
  • 13
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Approach friends about getting un-invited last minute with terrible communication and rude behavior?

Last weekend, me and 4 friends (let's call them Alice, Bob, Cody and Danny) wanted to go to another friends place (which I don't know) to have some drinks. The friend, at which the gathering was, also ...
Suimon's user avatar
  • 1,581
8 votes
2 answers
888 views

How to communicate that the first impression I made at a party was misleading?

On Monday I celebrated New Year's Eve with a group of people I have never seen before because a good friend of mine invited me to go there with her. Since I'm very shy towards strangers, I was pretty ...
Suimon's user avatar
  • 1,581
4 votes
2 answers
830 views

How to get hosts to split invitations to parties between ex-partners

My Ex and I recently broke up. There are a lot of very negative feelings on my side due to things that happened during the relationship and after the breakup. It is still hard for me to be in her ...
hephaisto's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
593 views

Difficult friend refuses to compromise regarding social outings [closed]

I have a pair of friends who I like to hang out with a great deal. We like to go out once a week. However, one of these friends refuses to go to any bar more than a few miles from his house. I end up ...
Englishman Bob's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
633 views

How do I get my friends to understand that I won't be social ALL the time and tolerate their scoff when I say 'I'm studying'

For a few months, I've been going out to wherever they've called. Spent money on food outside, had drinks with these folks. I have my exams coming up. Every time I get a text saying 'Hey, what's up! ...
imperialgendarme's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
3k views

How to ask to join friends to vacation?

I recently overheard two of my friends, that they are planning to go on vacation next year together with another two or three friends of us. Well, overheard may be the wrong word in this context, they ...
Suimon's user avatar
  • 1,581
0 votes
1 answer
206 views

What I need to say to other team members while inviting an almost outlier for group tour?

I have a team of almost ten people, allotted by an institution (college). A person from the team (say PS) always used to stay with another team and is almost disconnected from us. Remaining nine ...
hanugm's user avatar
  • 101
2 votes
3 answers
647 views

Communicate to a group of friends that I dislike their unreliability

I have a small group of friends, consisting of three people (names changed obviously): Leon (he's 20, know him for about 6 years or so), Andi (19, know him for roughly a year) and Chris (18, also know ...
Suimon's user avatar
  • 1,581
7 votes
3 answers
965 views

How to politely ask a band member to stop being late/ditching last minute?

So I am in a band consisting of 5 people: 2 guitarists, the drummer, the bassist and a vocalist (might be worth mentioning that the guitarists are brothers that only tend to see each other at practice)...
Tfish's user avatar
  • 632
5 votes
2 answers
701 views

Making my friends take my requests seriously

I'm having trouble with a few friends (I see on a regular basis) to take me, and what I say seriously. They sometimes straight up just ignore me. Also, it's not like I'm telling them to do stuff they ...
Suimon's user avatar
  • 1,581