Question1：What is friendship trap in your opinion?

Question2：What can you learn from the article?  Talk with your partner about it.

The Friendship Trap

I’ve always been told (which gives it about a 10 percent chance of being true since as a child, I was told everything by my brothers) that if you can count your good friends and fill up one hand, you are lucky. I take this very seriously. Feeling like the situation’s borderline, I think I might cheat.

Being insecure and needy with low self-esteem among other issues (according to the therapist I finally escaped from only by telling her I was moving away), I could not bare the thought of being in the “un-lucky” category. But the problem is, even great friends move in and out of our lives.

People move, which was helpful when I practiced real estate but can be sad when it comes to a good friend. And of course you can phone (although texting seems so prevalent I’m not sure we’ll even need spoken language in ten years) and you can write. But still. You can’t have lunch or drop over to cry or laugh at the park like you used to. And sometimes, no matter how hard you both vowed not to let it happen, the closeness fades.

So, do you put a counting finger down? No, you try to go visit her!

Now if a girlfriend got married and the husband finds you annoying and a threat, you might have to ponder the fact that another of your fabulous five is fading fast. Because I think most women agree that if a man does not want your friend around, you don’t have her over as much. New husbands are difficult enough to train without distractions.

If one friend has children and the other friend doesn’t, it can work unless the second friend has no interest in hearing, seeing, or spending time with children. She either changes or becomes a fabulous actress. But if she’s acting, she’ll go insane with baby stories alone, even if she doesn’t have to see those little darlings. And down goes finger number three.

But life isn’t that cruel, of course; other friendships grow as people find their niches and things of common interest. But still, it’s hard. It takes work and sometimes it feels lonelier than being alone, which I suppose has a good side because it’s pretty important to learn to enjoy being alone when your fingers are down to two.