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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4 votes
2 answers
2k views

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 ...
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 ...
1 vote
0 answers
580 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. ...
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

How do I stay friends with two people who are angry at one another?

I have two close friends in the university, Alice and Bob, who I've known since the first year. As the weeks passed, I felt less and less apart of our little group and I think the reason was that they ...
1 vote
1 answer
750 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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-...
1 vote
1 answer
468 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
2 votes
1 answer
537 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
7 votes
3 answers
967 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)...
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. ...
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 ...
8 votes
4 answers
1k views

How to respond to a gossiping friend?

There's a friend of mine, let's call her... Rachel. We're very close (platonic) friends, and we'll frequently hang out as part of a larger group of mixed gender (including both my girlfriend and her ...
2 votes
1 answer
331 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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
62 votes
12 answers
18k views

How to ask why I was not included without causing a scene?

My partner has a friend from way-back, T. We sometimes hang out with him and his family and go on day trips together. I've known them for 5 years but the contact is not always as frequent. While we ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
87 votes
10 answers
32k views

What to do with a friend who cheats in games?

What to do with a friend who slightly improves his chances in the card or board games we play, by, for example, picking another card while we don't look or turning the dice? The games are played for ...
7 votes
1 answer
770 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
8 votes
2 answers
596 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 ...
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 ...
9 votes
2 answers
795 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 ...
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 ...
16 votes
3 answers
2k views

How do I uninvite my friend's boyfriend from Dungeons and Dragons?

A few months back, four of my friends and I started meeting monthly for Dungeons and Dragons sessions. We weren't all close at the start of our campaign, but are now a tight-knit group. One member of ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
36 votes
7 answers
47k views

What to do if I suspect my friend is stealing from me?

Let's name the suspected stealing friend, Mark. Value of missing items is around 20$. I have been told from my other friends that Mark has been known to be around when things go missing, with a ...
76 votes
9 answers
23k views

How to handle very opinionated and aggressive friend?

A bit of background first I've been hanging with the same circle of friends for roughly 10 years now, we're quite a diverse bunch in terms of opinions, and it often sparks debates. Usually, everything ...
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 ...
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 ...
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) ...
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 ...