You don’t want to be the person who ditches their friends once they start a relationship. Your friends are valuable and have been there long before your new partner and will be there (if treated right) long after if things don’t work out.
So, you need to make an effort to balance your friends and your relationship. Doing so will help you keep your priorities straight and ensure you aren’t leaving anyone behind. Here are 10 tips to help you maintain your friendship even when you are in a relationship.
Ways to Make Sure You Don’t Forget Your Friends When You’re in a Relationship
Follow these tips to ensure that you are taking care of your friendships even when you have a new boyfriend or girlfriend. If you put these ideas into practice, you’ll be able to maintain a healthy friendship and relationship at the same time!
1. Make Your Friends a Priority
The first thing you need to do to make sure you don’t blow your friends off for your relationship is to mentally make them a priority. Make the decision that your friends are important to you and that they will remain a part of your life.
People tend to change once they get in a relationship. Don’t let the fact that you’ve found love cloud your judgment and cause you to forget everyone else but your partner. Prioritize the people who are important to you.
2. Hang Out With Your Friends and Partner at the Same Time
The easiest way to fit both your friends and your significant other into your life is to spend time with them at the same time. This will make it so you aren’t spreading yourself too thin trying to appease everyone.
During your time together, limit the PDA and make sure you’re giving attention to both your partner and your friends. No one wants to see you make out the whole time or be left alone while you chat with only your friends.
3. Schedule Time Alone With Friends
Group settings are great, but you need to have alone time with your friends too. When your significant other is present, the dynamic changes and your friends most likely want to get you on your own sometimes.
Make an effort to spend some quality time alone with your best friends. They will appreciate that you’re taking time out to be with them on your own and this can be great for your friendship.
4. Communicate With Your Friends
When you can’t be together, make sure you’re communicating with your friends. Let them know what you have going on and make staying in touch a priority.
Communication and scheduling will help your friends know that you’re still connected and actively working on the friendship.
5. Communicate With Your Partner
It’s vital that your partner knows how important your relationships with your friends are to you. Communicate this to them from the beginning so they have the right expectations.
Your partner should know and understand that you need to cut out time to spend with your friends alone sometimes and that you have other people in your life that are a priority to you.
6. Don’t Cut Out Activities You Did Together
If you used to spend every Friday night watching movies with your besties or playing poker with the guys, don’t just suddenly stop these activities because you have a new boyfriend or girlfriend. Sure, you might have to cut back on some activities, but don’t cut them out completely.
Your friends should be able to count on you to do at least some of the things you used to when you were single. So make sure you keep some of your traditions and activities going.
7. Encourage Your Friends and Partner to Have a Friendship
If you can get your significant other and your friends to form a friendship, balancing the two will be a lot easier for you! If the people you love are excited to hang out with each other, that makes socializing a whole lot better for you.
Let your friend and your partner know how important it is to you that they get to know each other. Of course, everyone won’t always get along. However, if you can make a friendship happen between them, it’s better for everyone.
8. Ask Before Bringing Your Partner
There’s nothing worse than a friend showing up with their significant other when it was supposed to be girls or guys only. If you are invited to something, like a brunch with your friends, ask ahead of time if partners are invited or not.
Your friend might have wanted a girls or guys day without dealing with partners. Even if they love your partner, it does change the dynamic. So, save yourself from being rude and ask ahead of time.
9. Stay Involved in Your Friends’ Lives
Make sure that you are showing the care and effort you always have when it comes to your friends’ lives. Ask them questions about what’s going on with them. Make it a point to be there if they need help with something.
Staying involved helps show them that they are still a priority and that you value them. Show up and be there even when you’re in a relationship.
10. Go Out on Group Dates
If your friend is dating someone too, double-dates or group dates are a great way to go out with everyone together and have fun. Hopefully your significant others will hit it off and you can enjoy outings together.
Conclusion
There are plenty of ways to balance your love life and your friendships. Make sure you are doing the correct things to balance out your friendships and your relationships. Your friends are the ones who will be around and might even help you through your breakup later on.
So, make sure that you are taking care of your friends and nurturing those relationships. Hopefully these tips have helped you find ways that you can balance your relationships and have the best of both worlds!
