Friendships rarely survive when one person has kids and the other doesn't.
People don't like admitting it, but having kids changes friendships, especially when one person chooses to remain childfree.
You can have the strongest friendship, genuinely believe nothing will change, and promise each other you'll always make time. But in reality, nine times out of ten, things slowly shift.
Suddenly, everything revolves around the friend who has kids. Catch-ups happen on their schedule, plans need to work around their family, spontaneity disappears, and you're often the one expected to make the effort and accommodate their new life.
And I get it. Kids become the priority, as they should. But that doesn't mean the friendship isn't becoming increasingly one-sided.
Eventually, you stop asking as often. They stop reaching out as much. Nobody necessarily falls out or does anything wrong. You just slowly drift apart until you're living completely different lives.
I also think there's an unspoken expectation that the person without kids should always be the flexible one, almost as though their time is somehow less valuable because they don't have children.
It's not that you stop caring about each other. It's that the friendship you once had no longer fits into either person's life.
I'm sure there are exceptions, but I genuinely think this happens far more often than people are willing to admit.
Curious to hear from other childfree people. Have you managed to maintain close friendships with friends who became parents, or did you eventually drift apart too?