Adult friendships

[Clodfobble]

It's amazing how timely this thread is to my life right now. Just this week we had our first experience in "having people over for dinner." I have been trying to figure out how to do this for awhile, this whole making new friends thing, and was really proud that we managed it so well. I mentioned the success to my mom, who responded that she was impressed, because in 16 years of being with my father, they never once had a single person over to the house, nor did they ever go do anything with anyone else. In the next 13 years with my stepfather, they had one set of neighbors across the street that they ate with maybe a dozen times, always at restaurants, and that was it.

I've started coming to the conclusion that, while having your spouse as a best friend is critical, it is also important to have mutual friends that you both enjoy being around. Sharing friends gives you a chance to see a side of their personality/behavior you are otherwise probably never going to see.