12 People Whose Christmas Was Full of Twists and Turns

Friendships often evolve as people move through different life stages, and one of the biggest shifts comes when children enter the picture. For those without children, it can feel like watching a familiar world change from the outside — suddenly, inside jokes revolve around parenting woes, and priorities seem to shift in unspoken ways. For one of our readers, it felt like her friends were treating her like a wallet and that’s why she started pulling away from them.
I felt like my friends were hanging out with me out of obligation. I’m the only one without kids. Every time, they’d expect me to pay a larger share of the bill, since they were paying the sitters. I stopped showing up.
A month later, one of them texted me —not to check in, but to accuse me of being “fake”, “disloyal,” and “ghosting” the group. That hit me. I ended up replying, and we talked. Long story short, I met up with a couple of them.
What they said honestly left me confused — they said they’d noticed I’d been distant, and they’d always tried to get closer, but I’d been the one pushing them away.
They said they cared but felt like I never let them in. Now, I don’t even know what to think. Part of me wants to believe them, but part of me still feels like I didn’t matter that much. I’m stuck.
Has anyone here been through something like this? What would you do?
No matter how many years go by and how many difficulties people face, friendships stand strong and overcome challenges. Some people are meant to be friends and won’t let anything or anyone take that away from them.