Does anyone find that working full time isolates you from your friends?

Kristin - posted on 08/23/2012

And i am extremely organized and keep on my house work in the evening when the kids are in bed so i manage to find time for everything even with a full time job three kids and a spouse who works out of town just gotta mutlitask lol

Kristin - posted on 08/23/2012

MOst of my friends have children so we try to get together at least 3 times a week for park dates in the evening. I have found that i did drift apart from my friends who dont have kids.

Susan - posted on 08/20/2012

Yes, makes things a lot harder. But my set of 4 girlfriends tries to plan a dinner or drinks, sometimes a month in advance. But yes, much harder. :(

SHEREE - posted on 08/03/2012

I feel the same way and from a good bit of my family. Just not enough time or energy to see and talk to everybody. Your not alone!

Leanne - posted on 07/29/2012

Hi Rebecca, I know exactly what you mean. my name is leanne and i work full time with a 4 year old son. I work monday to friday ,so does my husband. By the end of the week ur exhausted .Saturday is rest day and sunday clean up day , than back to work . Too socialise with friends means something left neglected (usually the housework).It gets too hard sometimes .

Stephanie - posted on 07/24/2012

I really only have a few friends left outside of work. And for the most part I feel they dont understand. A few are SAHM and some don't have kids. Sometimes they dont understand the difficulties of working AND having a family(I now have 4 kids and a step-son we have 2 evenings a week and every 2nd wknd). I wish I had time to put my kids in more extra curricular activities, but time doesn't really allow. I'm in management in retail, so I work long hours, and on my days off. It's easier to have friends at work, but thats pretty much what they are, friends while you are AT work. We dont do much outside of work.

I would say yes to all 3 of your questions, although it is kinda upsetting to think about. I have a friend we've been friends for 25 years-since we started nursery school together. I just had my 4th baby this month and she didn't even see me at all during my pregnancy :(

Nicolette - posted on 07/24/2012

Find that working full day, i feel more inclined to want to spend my free time with my daughter, especially on weekends. Although sometimes feel like a caged animal, i don't seem to want to change it at the moment. They grow up so quickly and i already feel that having to work all day during the week, i'm missing out on so much that daycare sees and i only hear about. But we do what we must to survive and give our children the best opportunities in life.

Beth - posted on 07/23/2012

I think it's a little bit of both!! But anyone who works full time and is a mom well we just don't have the time we need!! I work a full time job and as soon as I'm home mom duty. The worst part is my job requires me to work weekends. So the days I do have off everyone else is working. I do luckily have some great friends willing to hang out with my child and I during a week night for a couple hours here or there. Kind of throws the schedule off but who's schedule is always normal? Allows me to have a little bit of sanity and not feel so socially non existent!

Denise - posted on 07/23/2012

Absolutely! And I'm very happy you bring it up because sometimes it feels like I'm the only one. My friends work part time or not at all. I have a full time job on my own company which I'm trying to build with two partners and after work I'm exhausted. I rush home to be there at 6 and start the second shift with my two boys (ages 2 and 4), on top of this my husband and I now have a date night on a weekday because on weekends we can't find anyone to babysit. My friends mostly have afternoon dates with their kids, which I never get to attend, so if I ever get to see them I definitely don't have a lot in common with them to chat. And with the one that don't have kids it's even more complicated to have things in common, with them I get to realize I have no life apart from my husband and kids.

Rebecca - posted on 07/19/2012

I never looked at from that way, you're very right Amy. I have some really good work friends, we only tend to meet up once in a blue moon but now thinking about it thats probably better than not at all. My husband and son are my number one priority, but I do struggle when I see other mums going out about with each other (the old green eyed monster I think lol). That's the price to pay when you work fulltime I suppose. My days off and evenings are all about the two men in my life.

Amy - posted on 07/18/2012

I don't think working full time is isolating I find being a mom can be isolating. I actually have interaction with adults at work and have met some great friends at the different places I've worked. But when I get home from work or it's my day off my family is my focus. My kids are my number one priority so it's hard to spend time with friends unless they are willing to spend time with my kids. Fortunately I've got some great friends and we trade off dinner at our house once every couple of months.....ahh the life of being a mom.

Rebecca - posted on 07/18/2012

I'm so glad I'm not the only one, I was starting to wonder. Alot of my friends don't work or work part-time so they are constantly round each others houses, so when I do get the odd chance to meet up I always feel like a spare part. It doesn't help that I'm not naturally outgoing but I do try to make an effort.:(

KathleenLewis - posted on 07/17/2012

Between working at work and coming home to my second job, I am so exhausted that I can barely function. I know I am not the only one that feels that way, especially if you have school aged kids. Then you throw in homework and extra-curricular activities and HOLY COW. I have the best intentions to get together with friends, but it does not ever seem to happen. I do however, manage to make it out of the house roughly once a month to scrapbook on a Saturday!