The hardest thing about being a woman is having female friends.
It’s also the best thing. But women are busy. Sometimes, women move far away. And have babies. And are in different life stages than their friends.
Women have long conversations and need to convey an enormous amount of information on a vast number of topics.
I’ve struggled with this in my own life. I hate the phone and so do most of my friends. Some of them live in different states, different time zones, different countries. Some of them live in the country.
Some of them are living very different lives to me. With small children or no children.
Female friendship is the foundation that underpins my life, my happiness and my sense of well being. It is not a side issue in my life, it's the main course along with my kids, marriage and career.
And here is something I discovered a while ago. The key to maintaining close relationships is frequency of communication. It's the little things that keep you close. The regular contact. Talking about something funny you read or a show you watched or venting about something annoying your partner/child/boss/co-worker did.
I have girlfriends who are incredibly dear to me who I don't see from month to month. Or even year to year if they live overseas. Email feels too clunky. Phone calls are impractical (also just: ick). And meeting up IRL is often just not possible.
Listen: The app Mia Freedman swears by. Post continues after audio.
Thank you whatsapp. You're the app that has opened up my friendships. Given my girlfriends back to me in the best possible way.
Top Comments
I thought this discussion was really interesting...I totally agree that intimacy in female friendship is intensified by frequency of contact, not necessarily depth. I'm not a millennial and identify strong as gen x but my via my gen Y friends and sibling I now have several groups/configerations of female friendship groups on FB messengers through which I have contact - it's regular, its informal - it might be just a meme or a gif - or it might be a long and heartfelt monologue....but I love it and have found it incredible freeing. You don't have to worry about covering all the bases as you do in a phone chat - or worrying about grammar as you do in an email. I love all these chatting devices and I agree that they've given female friendships a lease of life - and freedom!!