Friends don't always come in pairs

Invite couple friends and single friends to the same gatherings

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that friends don't always come in pairs. Don't
assume that if you are getting together with friends, you

(00:24):
have to have all couples, or that you need to
gather separately with friends who are unattached. You can get
together with solo friends and couple friends at the same time.
On a recent episode of my other podcast, Best of
Both Worlds, Sarah Hartunger and I tackled a question from
a listener whose couple friends were getting a divorce. She

(00:48):
was wondering how to maintain a relationship with them. It
can be hard if you and your partner have both
been used to getting together with another couple and then
the other couple splits up. Obviously, the four of you
won't be going on double dates anymore, but what are
your options for staying in touch? The question got me

(01:10):
thinking about how friends don't always come in pairs. Whether
you are partnered or single, you probably have some friends
who are single and some who are partnered. Some of
your friend's partners may be people you're just not that
close to or don't share much in common with, or
just have schedules or interests that make it unlikely you

(01:31):
will socialize. But this doesn't have to be a problem.
For a great many activities, you can just invite a mix.
You could go to a concert, for instance, with your
husband and your childhood best friend and your husband's good
friend from work, along with your neighbor who just moved
into town. If you are single in hosting a dinner party,

(01:54):
you could invite your three college roommates and their partners.
But maybe one of the partners is out of town,
so you end up with yourself, your three college roommates,
and two of their spouses. The combinations are endless. The
main point is to not assume that the configurations of
everybody you get together with need to be the same. Now, obviously,

(02:16):
some activities like bridge or tennis or ballroom dancing require
even numbers, but most activities don't, And even if you
do need an even number, that doesn't mean everybody needs
to come as a pair. Two plus two plus two
equals six, but so does two plus one plus one
plus two. If one pair of folks in your bridge

(02:37):
group splits up, maybe the party who is more into
it keeps coming and you bring in a new bridge enthusiast,
so you still have got the right number. Now, there
may be a whole separate, thorny issue of which part
of a splitting couple gets custody, as it were, of
which friend groups. But if you, as a couple are

(02:58):
truly good friends with both parties who are splitting, you
can get together with each of them as a group
of three, or add in some others to be a
group of five or six or whatever. Friends are friends
and they don't always come in pairs. In the meantime,
this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

(03:22):
the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

(03:47):
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. M