There’s a kind of friendship that I have discovered since having kids that I never knew we needed until I found it. It’s the kind of friendship that makes life with kids so much easier and much more FUN. If you can find a couple that both you and your husband love spending time with, with kids that are similar ages to yours, you’ve hit the friendship jackpot.
The “Couple BFFs” is the unicorn of friendships, because it’s not necessarily easy to find both a husband and wife that you AND your husband not only gel with but actually want to hang out with.
Consider yourself lucky if you find them!
I was just getting to know my friend MaryBeth when we were out for a “Mom’s Night Out” with some other new mom friends. As we were walking to the parking garage to leave, she casually mentioned mid-conversation that her husband likes to fish. My ears perked up. We were new-ish to the area and were trying to meet people. My internal monologue was, “Oooh! Your husband likes to fish? MY husband likes to fish! We’re going to need to start hanging out. Did we just become best friends?!” We had our husbands exchange numbers, and we started hanging out with just our families. That was probably four years ago, and now they are just our best buds!
Now that we’ve found our people, I totally recognize that many of my other mom friends have found their people too! I can’t over-hype how awesome this type of friendship is.
You know you’ve found your Couple BFF’s if:
- It’s assumed that you are doing something together once a week.
- You love their kids like your own, and you aren’t grossed out if one of their kids is sick.
- Your husband hangs out with your friend’s husband one-on-one as much as you hang out with the wife.
- You travel well together and can imagine doing big family trips together.
- Your kids can play together for long periods of time with minimal drama.
- You like the same things, and it’s easy to decide what to do.
- Weekend get-togethers turn in to all-day hangouts.
- The pressure is off. No need to clean your house or have a big dinner prepared.
- Sleeping over at each other’s house on a random Saturday? Not a weird thing to do at all.
- You have a group text with all four of you.
- Fingers crossed that your kids will get married so you can have your BFF’s as in-laws.
I think people often describe meeting new friends as parents like dating – and it’s true! You have to be brave, get their number, invite them to do something, and follow up if it went well! It sometimes feels awkward to put yourself out there, but just do it. You really have nothing to lose and only really great friends to gain!
