idk about you but i want my child free of all social skills and relationships besides the one with his motherI hope you're joking, because if you're not then you have to deal with the matter that's inevitable: your kid having absolutely zero social skills. That's basically akin to emotionally stunting your children if the only relationship they have is with their parents. How will they cope in the world if they have no idea how to conduct themselves amongst other people? I grew up in a very open-minded household, I traveled a ton in my later youth, got to know so many people and so many cultures. What you're talking about would basically be raising a child to be a shut-in. That's how people get agoraphobia for crying out loud.
I honestly have no idea. Bondo and I don't talk like we used to. I have no problem with his wife, but I do wish she would allow him a little more freedom. In my opinion he's a great guy and never should have had to change anything. Truthfully I miss Bondo, but as his friend I just want him to be happy, whatever that might mean.
Where is this topic? I would like to see it. I know a couple of guys who were former GWers that might possibly feel this way, so it could be me. Here's how it went:
I drove the 25 miles almost every day to hang out with a couple of friends for around 5 years or so. We were pretty close friends, and it was good.
When I started dating my wife, I devoted my time to her, partly because I wanted it to just be us for a while, and partly because I wasn't sure that her personality would be compatible with these guys.
This continued after we got married. She isn't the most sociable person in the world, I was her only friend (She hadn't been living in the area long.), and she didn't like a lot of publicness, except for things like shopping. As long as she doesn't have to talk to strangers, she's OK. She's not the type to go to strange houses and talk to random strangers. She was homeschooled from K-12, so you can imagine that her social skills are not exactly at the level of smoothness that most people are used to. It's still mostly my fault, because I still wasn't sure if she would like my friends.
We got pregnant quickly after getting married, and being pregnant, her mood and hormones are not exactly pleasant. I can handle her, but I'm not sure that others can. (In any sort of manner that keeps the peace anyway.)
So I'm basically protecting her from the people I know until she has the baby and her hormones level out.
From the perspective of these long-time friends, my wife has "stolen" me and kept me away from them, allowing me to have 0 fun, I'm certain. In reality, I have found things that require my time that take priority over hanging out with friends. Though I admit, I may have gone overboard and kept her away too long. If I want to keep these friends, I know I'm going to have to ingratiate my wife into our mini-society sometime. One of these friends had a baby with his girlfriend, and he bit the bullet and continued to hang out with said friends. His girlfriend was in tears, wanting to go back home to her mom on more than one occasion. I don't want to see my wife like that.
She survived, my wife probably can too. Though a 30 mile trip doesn't help, with gas prices the way they are. I can't afford to see them as much as I used to.
Bondo, I was only in tears wanting to go home once as a result of the way you guys were treating me, and it had nothing to do with my significant other hanging out with you guys, it had to do with some very heinous things that were said about me by those friends, AND it was more than a year before we had the baby. Using that as an example is absolutely moot my dear friend, sorry.