Are you overreacting or are you just reacting to evidence of observed behavior and patterns?
Category: Friendship
#1353: My friend always takes over a day to respond to messages.
If someone averages 36 hours between responses, what happens if you assume that their response time will be 36 hours?
#1348: “How to tell an ex you’re pregnant when it’s not theirs and not your ex”
Your partner's ex, your partner's friend group, your partner's life choices are your partner's job to manage.
#1347: “My friend asked me if we could add ‘benefits,’ I still feel weird about it, am I justified in ending the friendship?”
"Good news, I finally persuaded my fiancée to let me sleep with other people, now we can finally act out all my fantasies about you over Zoom!" Whoa, seems sexy!
#1346: “My new ‘friend’ has alt-right skeletons in her closet. How do I nope out?”
"Inside this lady are two bigots, one is capable of acting nice sometimes and the other is not, don't feed either of them with your time, sympathy, or attention."
#1342: “Please help me stop people from assuming that my best friend and I are a couple.”
Like the creative writing workshop advice goes, if one person tells you a piece of feedback about your story, that's just their opinion, but if ten people give you the same note, there's probably something worth paying attention to on the input side.
#1340: “I sat for my friends’ cats for years, but they won’t return the favor now:” Friendship, Favors, and Reciprocity
There is "what might be technically owed" and "what is realistic and workable now." In general, don't try to extract the former at the expense of the latter with people you'd like to stay friends with.
#1338: “*surprised Pikachu face* Another friendship that stresses me out!”
Let's you and me drive a stake through the heart of NiceGirl™ Summer.
It Came From The Search Terms: June 2021 Is Busting Out All Over
Soft rejections, mixing finances, and a primer for dealing with loaded questions.
#1335: Advice about anxiety about over-committing to in-person hangouts written by a person with ADHD who struggles with time.
When fear of over-committing meets terror of letting other people down, that's where you'll find me and way more than one of you, if my inbox is any indication.
CaptainAwkward.com 