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Boyfriend hanging out with female friends


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38 minutes ago, Rose Mosse said:

It's your lack of communication in the relationship and not any of his particular friends that are the issue.

I was thinking the same thing. 

You can't really blame him for not inviting you when you consistently turn down invitations, OP. I can see why he had stopped asking. I don't think this is all on him for not considering your needs when he's already identified a pattern. 

Having said that, you can (and should) certainly have a conversation about this. Explain why you would still like to feel included, and maybe you could make more of an effort to socialize with these friends too. He's already distanced himself from the ones who were unkind to you, which is good, but perhaps you can try to branch out a bit more with the others. 

As for this particular girl, ask him about her. Heck, see if she would like to get together (all 3 of you) for a coffee or a drink. You might just be surprised if she turns out to be a cool person, and your boyfriend may enjoy the fact that you feel comfortable with this friend. 

I would only be concerned if he balks at this or somehow wants to keep you away from her. Then you have a whole other ball of wax, but you don't know if that's the case right now. 

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11 hours ago, Starbaby14 said:

 I bring up the ADHD because one of the side effects of the disorder is disorganized thoughts.

In this year when dating is supposed to be fun and about each other, you feel sadness hurt and worry. Add to that playing house and making excuses for his thoughtlessness.

Stop and reflect how long exactly you plan to feel sad and hurt and put yourself last after all his lady friends and games.

Don't be his mom. Providing household duties so he can play with his friends and video games.

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10 hours ago, Starbaby14 said:

ADHD is also not funny, it's real. And my boyfriend does REALLY have it and I'm trying to give everyone all the information and explain why sometimes he thinks and does the things he does. I'm trying to be logical and reasonable about my situation and look for outside perspectives.

Sorry you took it as reprimanding. Not how it was intended.  I've seen in my life many people take a self-deprecating/lighthearted approach to try to deflect.  That was my observation.  My  father had bipolar disorder for most of his life.  From teenager to when he passed away in his 80s.  He was married for 60 years to my mother and together more than that. He never ever justified his reactions or choices by saying it was because he had this disorder.  He complied with medication and therapy so he could do the very best he could by us.  He could have used it as an excuse to cheat or behave inappropriately - "oh I was off my meds" or "oh because i was depressed I drank too much and behaved in this way" etc etc.  He never did.  He hated all the meds etc and he did it for us -for his love and commitment to my mother and his family.

ADHD is real.  It never justifies a person treating another person disrespectfully or worse IMO.  Yes if he was a young child or a person with a disorder where he didn't know right from wrong, etc - but that's not him. You say he has all these female friends- especially with women he would have none of them if he treated them rudely or was regularly flaky etc.  

You are typing words here.  Of course if you pepper what you write with LOL that might affect the impression you give.  IMO.  Good luck to you and it sounds like you want to give your boyfriend the benefit of the doubt so you can stay in this relationship.  We all make choices -only you can decide whether it's ok with you or whether you are settling.  I settled in other ways -and I can relate to the desire to settle as opposed to the alternatives.  I'm glad I stopped settling.  Perhaps you'll go through a similar analysis. Or not. 

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Actually when I was a child and teenager, I got along much better with boys than girls. I actually found some girls in my class at school to be catty and trying to compete with each other, but boys were just laid back and nice. I guess as an adult I didn't have as many male friends because yeah of the romantic or sexual implications once you're old enough to understand them lol Still though I do have a couple of close male friends and also other male friends who aren't as close or are more acquaintances. Though most of my friends are female.

I understand why you might think there's something suspicious if your boyfriend has ONLY female friends. That is unusual. Though I wouldn't just automatically jump to that he's dating them or hooking up with them. People in my friendship group have friends of all genders and we don't really consider it cheating. Personally I don't mind if my partner has opposite gender friends as long as it doesn't actually appear like there's something going on. 

For example, you said he catches up with these female friends only once a week or once a fortnight and they're playing D and D as a group. I don't see how that's suspicious? He doesn't see them that often and they're doing role playing games as a group. If your boyfriend went out for dinner, movies, road trip one-on-one with these girls, that would be different. Hanging out in a group doesn't actually point to any particular romantic interest in any of them because he's not even alone with them.

He did also invite you to join them at first but you say you were too shy and you also find D and D boring. So you stopped catching up with them by your own wishes. If your boyfriend was into them then I don't think he'd be asking you to join them. He probably didn't invite you to meet the friend from interstate because you haven't been interested in hanging out with his other friends.

Also you said you do actually have a male friend yourself too but he lives interstate. So it's not like your friends are only female.

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1 hour ago, Andrina said:

 

As an aside, I'm going to advise you don't make your bf the sole center of your social universe for 2 reasons. The first is that even though he may be fine with it now, that situation will end up feeling smothering to him. The second reason is that if you don't have a support system besides him, you will be a whole lot more devastated if a breakup happens. On top of that, you will remain in a toxic relationship because he is all you have in this world.

Being shy is not a good excuse for not hanging out with his friends. When you practice the art of socializing, you will get better and better at it. If that DND game bores you, how about inviting one of the couples from the group over for dinner, or to a concert, or any number of activities?

With just one other couple, you will be able to get to know each other better. And then if you develop a rapport with one of the women, you can ask her to do something one-on-one with you.

You could also start a new hobby with your bf, and it's also good to have your own hobby/interest to get involved in for self-fulfillment. Make your own friends as well, since if a breakup happens, his friends might fade away from you.

Remember that a confident person with standards who doesn't put up with BS is a lot more attractive than a shrinking violet with a spine as limp as a wet noodle. Make your solo life fulfilling so that if a breakup happens, you will have the normal upsets most do, but your whole life won't feel as though it has crumbled into total devastation.

100% all this

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All happy & healthy relationships take a lot of communication and compromise.

If one partner is doing something the other partner is not comfortable with, it is on that partner to talk to their partner about it.

Now let's be honest,  how you talk about it is also important.  You want to think about what your message is.  You said you don't want to come across insecure or needy so you might preface what you say with that.  With how you're feeling. 

Then you want to find a good time to talk.  Don't attack the person. Let it be for a little bit. Then when you're both relaxed and enjoying being together you bring up the topic. 

You're more likely to have a more productive conversation with this approach. however, you can only control yourself.  I've had partners that I couldn't talk to, that I always accused of something or it became a fight. 

Well... hello that's not the person for me!  It did hurt to find deal breakers or incompatibilities, but those are the signs your looking for!

You commented about a year being too soon. 

It can be. To live with someone is basically being married to them and this requires a lot of discussions... about expectations, expenses, what if scenarios, chores, kids, pets, emergencies, families, FRIENDS, all that stuff and the boundaries. 

If you have not discussed all these things and youre reluctant to discuss things that bother you,  then yeah you probably moved in too soon. 

Don't let fear rule you.  Yes, you love him, but you have to love you, too. Even more so because we teach people how to treat us. It can start with, well, I don't want to make a big deal of something petty (been there) but if you don't say anything, it becomes a pattern.

You have to determine your boundaries and standards and then hold people accountable. If it's a deal breaker,  then you're better off sooner rather than later.

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1 hour ago, Lambert said:

It can be. To live with someone is basically being married to them and this requires a lot of discussions... about expectations, expenses, what if scenarios, chores, kids, pets, emergencies, families, FRIENDS, all that stuff and the boundaries. 

I think the huge relevant difference is they are not married.  So yes on the practical, logistical stuff.  Not necesarily on the commitment end depending on their purpose in living together.  When you have a marital commitment or a marital-like commitment then the boundaries are often different as are the discussions because they're from the perspective of forever/the long term. Playing house doesn't necessarily relate to any increased emotional commitment or sense of the long term.

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At least here living with somebody is like a marital union. When you move in with somebody its considered that you are almost married. Even courts admit that. I think after 5 years living together you can claim extramarital union. I often joke with my politician friend that if his ex fiance stayed for 6 more months(they lived together for 4,5 years before separation) that she could comfortably took him to court. Which she would have the right as she did invest into their appartment even though he is the owner. Like this she just took some stuff(like for example a marriage bed which she bought) and they separated. 

Anyway, I forgot to comment on DnD. Its not really a fun environment for somebody unless you like to watch. Because everyone else gets involved but you need to stay put and just watch and not interupt. We brought many number of people(girlfriends, friends etc) over the years. Because they were interested what we do there. Rarely who considered it a fun experience precisely because outsider just watches somebody else playing the game. Its much more fun if you would like to play with them. 

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Where I live there is no common law marriage and I with sharing physical space I think it matters why the couple is choosing to live together.  My friend and her partner have lived together for about 16 years and have a teenage son.  I think they are domestic partners, not married but obviously there's no real difference.  Another friend has lived with her partner in New York for many years. He told her early on he had no plans to marry again.  They are not married.  She wants to be.  She settled for his terms.  To me they are not like married because he doesn't want to marry her.

My husband and I officially lived together after we married.  We were engaged for 6.5 weeks before getting married.  We were expecting parents about 8 months before getting married.  To me we were not married but our commitment to each other was like a marital commitment.  Living together had nothing to do with it and didn't strengthen our commitment or make us more married.  Taking our wedding vows and becoming parents shortly after did.

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1 hour ago, Kwothe28 said:

Anyway, I forgot to comment on DnD. Its not really a fun environment for somebody unless you like to watch. Because everyone else gets involved but you need to stay put and just watch and not interupt. We brought many number of people(girlfriends, friends etc) over the years. Because they were interested what we do there. Rarely who considered it a fun experience precisely because outsider just watches somebody else playing the game. Its much more fun if you would like to play with them. 

I can't imagine it would be fun to watch.  Some things are just not spectator activities.

I used to date a guy who was into skydiving.  Talk about boring to watch!  An airplane took off.  Many minutes later it flew thousands of feet overhead.  Then some specks dropped out of the airplane.  Gradually, over the course of many more minutes, the specks got larger.  Eventually the specks could be identified as humans.  Then they landed.  The only entertaining part was when the guy I dated stumbled and ate crap when he landed.  That was funny.  He was super, super into this.  I couldn't be less interested in participating.  But yes, that interest of his did lead to the end of our dating situation as he was spending almost every waking hour outside of work at the airfield either jumping or waiting to jump.  Since it was so boring I just didn't go. So predictably he ended up falling for a woman who worked at the airfield.  She was there, I wasn't.

OP, I don't recommend you attend the DnD sessions but surely there are things you could do to get to know his friends better.  Maybe have them over for board games (NOT DnD) or a movie night.

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2 hours ago, Batya33 said:

I think the huge relevant difference is they are not married.  So yes on the practical, logistical stuff.  Not necesarily on the commitment end depending on their purpose in living together.  When you have a marital commitment or a marital-like commitment then the boundaries are often different as are the discussions because they're from the perspective of forever/the long term. Playing house doesn't necessarily relate to any increased emotional commitment or sense of the long term.

I agree. There is a difference and some people are in a union and some are playing house. 

 

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As someone else already pointed out, your issues is really about communication. 

A phrase that's good for everyone in committed relationships to remember is this- 

I can't expect my partner to fulfill needs of mine that I don't communicate. 

You've said you trust him.  He's been clear with the beginning from you that he has close female friends.  He's told you why he has them and why they are important to him.  He has also invited you to meet them.  So far everything he has done has been totally above board.  Since you have elected not to go out with them anymore, he may very well have surmised that you wouldn't enjoy yourself. 

And truthfully, if it is an old friend that he doesn't see often, you likely wouldn't have a good time at their first reunion as they'd likely be talking about people and places you don't know.  

Neither of you has really done anything wrong.   But, you did need to communicate your feelings and needs.   You need to do this calmly and when you are both in good moods.  You will only come across as insecure if you attack him.  You really focus on yourself - your feelings and your needs. 

No one likes to hear close friends of their attacked and if you do this, all that will happen is he will get defensive and hide things from you. 

How I think is a good way to approach it-  " I'm glad you have a friend like X that you feel comfortable with and I'm glad you had a chance to see her.   I know I have expressed not wanting to go out, but since she isn't in town often and she is important to you, I would love to meet her.  Maybe we could all have dinner together?  I've also learned about myself that when I'm not invited, it makes me feel left out and not prioritized.   Next time a friend comes to town, or when you hang out with others, it would make me feel good if you would ask me if I would like to join." 

It expresses your feelings without attacking him or his female friends.  If he is the man you think he is, then he should understand and appreciate this. 

Incidentally, I am a woman with lots of close male friends.  It's not that I don't have female friends, but my male friends often don't have the same obligations that my female friends do.  I shower when I hang out with them or shave if my pits are hairy and I'm wearing a tank top.  It's just social graces, NOT because I have any romantic intentions towards any of them.  I always communication with my husband if I am hanging out with one of them alone.  He is always invited, if he chooses not to come- he trust me, because he knows I love him and would never disrespected our relationship. 

It's really just all about communication.  I feel this is just a small hiccup that you can easily overcome together.  Express yourself and set the expectations that you would like to see. 

You've got this!   All the best. 

 

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23 hours ago, Cherylyn said:

If my husband (former boyfriend) were to have a bunch of !female friends while I'm his girlfriend, I'd tell him to enjoy his female friends and go have a nice life ! 

This ^^^ is how I feel.  I wouldn't want to be just one more chick in his harem.

It's much easier to bail in the beginning than it is down the road after you're already involved.  Fortunately they usually tell you this info VERY early on, because having lots of female friends and no--or few--male friends is often a source of pride for them.

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In the most basic terms you have told him and showed him you trust him and are okay with him hanging out with female friends so that is what he is doing.

You also told him and showed him that you do not like to hang out with them so he stopped asking.

You cannot blame him or distrust him for doing what has been "normal" for all this time.

If you have changed your mind and don't want him hanging out with these women then it is time to have that discussion.

Now if he had dated any of these women it would be different because they would not be friends, they would be ex's.

  Decide how you feel about all this and then sit down with him and let him know how it all makes you feel.  This is between you and him and NONE of us can decide what is right or wrong for your relationship. 

  Relationships change and grow but sometimes they change and wither.  The two of you will either work through this and be stronger and more understanding or it will ultimately end.

  You asked if you wrong to be upset.  Yes you are because he didn't change, you did.

  Wait a few days and have a talk and let us know how it goes.

BTW   I am in the camp that ex's have no place in a relationship as "friends" or anything else but these are not ex's.

Lost

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10 hours ago, Tinydance said:

Actually when I was a child and teenager, I got along much better with boys than girls. I actually found some girls in my class at school to be catty and trying to compete with each other, but boys were just laid back and nice. I guess as an adult I didn't have as many male friends because yeah of the romantic or sexual implications once you're old enough to understand them lol Still though I do have a couple of close male friends and also other male friends who aren't as close or are more acquaintances. Though most of my friends are female.

I understand why you might think there's something suspicious if your boyfriend has ONLY female friends. That is unusual. Though I wouldn't just automatically jump to that he's dating them or hooking up with them. People in my friendship group have friends of all genders and we don't really consider it cheating. Personally I don't mind if my partner has opposite gender friends as long as it doesn't actually appear like there's something going on. 

For example, you said he catches up with these female friends only once a week or once a fortnight and they're playing D and D as a group. I don't see how that's suspicious? He doesn't see them that often and they're doing role playing games as a group. If your boyfriend went out for dinner, movies, road trip one-on-one with these girls, that would be different. Hanging out in a group doesn't actually point to any particular romantic interest in any of them because he's not even alone with them.

He did also invite you to join them at first but you say you were too shy and you also find D and D boring. So you stopped catching up with them by your own wishes. If your boyfriend was into them then I don't think he'd be asking you to join them. He probably didn't invite you to meet the friend from interstate because you haven't been interested in hanging out with his other friends.

Also you said you do actually have a male friend yourself too but he lives interstate. So it's not like your friends are only female.

I don't have any problem with him hanging out with his female friends especially his DND group. I know them he's told me about them, I have no reason to feel threatened. This new girl who's visiting that he's hanging out with, she's different. He hasn't told me anything about her and talks to her everyday and has been hanging out with her. I get that she's visiting and he wants to catch up, no problem. But the lack of communication and the lack of him involving me in anyway is what has hurt me and made me feel weird and threatened. That's why I wasn't sure if I was being insecure and overreacting. He's never given me a reason not to trust him, but his dynamic with this girl has been different to any other female friend he's had

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4 hours ago, redswim30 said:

As someone else already pointed out, your issues is really about communication. 

A phrase that's good for everyone in committed relationships to remember is this- 

I can't expect my partner to fulfill needs of mine that I don't communicate. 

You've said you trust him.  He's been clear with the beginning from you that he has close female friends.  He's told you why he has them and why they are important to him.  He has also invited you to meet them.  So far everything he has done has been totally above board.  Since you have elected not to go out with them anymore, he may very well have surmised that you wouldn't enjoy yourself. 

And truthfully, if it is an old friend that he doesn't see often, you likely wouldn't have a good time at their first reunion as they'd likely be talking about people and places you don't know.  

Neither of you has really done anything wrong.   But, you did need to communicate your feelings and needs.   You need to do this calmly and when you are both in good moods.  You will only come across as insecure if you attack him.  You really focus on yourself - your feelings and your needs. 

No one likes to hear close friends of their attacked and if you do this, all that will happen is he will get defensive and hide things from you. 

How I think is a good way to approach it-  " I'm glad you have a friend like X that you feel comfortable with and I'm glad you had a chance to see her.   I know I have expressed not wanting to go out, but since she isn't in town often and she is important to you, I would love to meet her.  Maybe we could all have dinner together?  I've also learned about myself that when I'm not invited, it makes me feel left out and not prioritized.   Next time a friend comes to town, or when you hang out with others, it would make me feel good if you would ask me if I would like to join." 

It expresses your feelings without attacking him or his female friends.  If he is the man you think he is, then he should understand and appreciate this. 

Incidentally, I am a woman with lots of close male friends.  It's not that I don't have female friends, but my male friends often don't have the same obligations that my female friends do.  I shower when I hang out with them or shave if my pits are hairy and I'm wearing a tank top.  It's just social graces, NOT because I have any romantic intentions towards any of them.  I always communication with my husband if I am hanging out with one of them alone.  He is always invited, if he chooses not to come- he trust me, because he knows I love him and would never disrespected our relationship. 

It's really just all about communication.  I feel this is just a small hiccup that you can easily overcome together.  Express yourself and set the expectations that you would like to see. 

You've got this!   All the best. 

 

Thank you so much. Everyone is absolutely right that it's on me to communicate my needs and communicate to him what bothers me. Communication is most important and I'm doing no good by hiding my feelings. I do trust him and I would hope he trusts me as well! I wish you the best! 

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Well the other thing I was just going to mention is, if you want to talk to him about being included with his friends then I think you'd actually need to show (at least sometimes) that you will actually join in. For example, I don't want to be invited to play D and D by my partner because I don't actually want to play either lol Like you it's also not really my thing.

But if you're going to ask your boyfriend to include you, I think you need to show that you do actually want to join him and his friends and get to know them. Not just ask him to include you because it gives you peace of mind that he's doing it. If that makes sense? Because the thing is, if he always tries to include you but you always decline, that defeats the purpose of him actually trying.

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Your BF is dating others. Pure and simple. There's no reason for you to play mom while he's out with these women. It's not about "oh he warned you all his pals are women". Or you're at fault because he asked you to tag along but didn't go.

It's about complete disrespect for you and the relationship. It doesn't have to be sexual to be disrespectful or wrong.

You can give him another "cool GF" talk about how much you don't mind that he wastes all his time playing games and hanging out with other women, but that won't make you feel any better and in fact will further demoralize you.

It's odd you two don't have any fun together or enjoy any activities together. So what's the point of living together then? So when he comes home from playing games with his girl friends, he's got clean laundry and dinner waiting?

You're with a giant child, not a man or a partner.

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This woman is different.  Also why would a woman want to spend all this time with a man in a committed relationship without asking to meet her, do an activity all together? Example- about 17 years ago when my husband and I were first dating seriously my friend P - a guy -asked to meet up on a Friday night.  I said that we should all go out - my boyfriend included and he agreed but asked to meet me alone an hour earlier because we could catch up more personally.  He'd never met my boyfriend.

I had never dated P. I met him at a high school reunion -not my high school -we knew people in common, I'd considered dating him and suggested lunch (years before I was with my boyfriend) - then had lunch and discovered we would not be a good match.  I don't think P ever knew, it was all platonic, I got over the initial "attraction" quickly after that and we stayed friends.  

It was the only time in all these years my husband objected. He said it was a Friday night -our date night -and it was inappropriate for P to suggest meeting me alone an hour earlier.  Especially since he'd never met him.  I called P.  P agreed actually and apologized for suggesting it and apologized to my boyfriend and did his utmost to be a friend to him (yes, successfully).  

Communication worked but I chose my bf -I actually didn't see how wrong it was but respected that my boyfriend did and he was my priority and was being reasonable about the compromise.  It's often a gray area!

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3 hours ago, Wiseman2 said:

Your BF is dating others. Pure and simple. There's no reason for you to play mom while he's out with these women. It's not about "oh he warned you all his pals are women". Or you're at fault because he asked you to tag along but didn't go.

It's about complete disrespect for you and the relationship. It doesn't have to be sexual to be disrespectful or wrong.

You can give him another "cool GF" talk about how much you don't mind that he wastes all his time playing games and hanging out with other women, but that won't make you feel any better and in fact will further demoralize you.

It's odd you two don't have any fun together or enjoy any activities together. So what's the point of living together then? So when he comes home from playing games with his girl friends, he's got clean laundry and dinner waiting?

You're with a giant child, not a man or a partner.

So what are you saying, if someone has an opposite gender friend, that equals they are dating? Even if there is no proof they are dating but just by default of being a different gender? I don't think that really makes sense.

If he was dating these female friends then he wouldn't be hanging out in a group. He would be seeing them one-on-one. And he wouldn't have asked his girlfriend to join them.

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On 8/19/2022 at 5:18 PM, Starbaby14 said:

He got really excited and made plans right away and he made sure to tell me she was coming and he will be hanging out with her. He's been spending everyday talking to her and today is the day he left to go see her. He didn't invite me or tell me anything about her and he will be alone with her. 

He Is seeing her one-on-one and did not invite his GF. That in my opinion is disrespectful and hurtful . Add to this, his preference for using his leisure time to play games with his female friends who the OP claims where unwelcoming and "mean" to her. That as well is disrespectful and not in line with building a trusting, loving, respectful relationship, but that of a selfish little boy.

12 minutes ago, Tinydance said:

He would be seeing them one-on-one. And he wouldn't have asked his girlfriend to join them.

 

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