How to Make Friends as You Get Older

Readers, what are your top tips on how to be friends as you get older? Have you noticed that there are certain stages of life where it is much more difficult to make friends? (How do you think the pandemic has changed existing friendships and created or blocked new ones?)

How Jane Fonda Says About Making Friends As You Get Older

I just saw it This is a great advice clip. From Jane Fonda on how to be friends as you get older. The clip is adorable, especially the way she reacts to Sally Fields’ advice, so watch it – but her advice basically sums it up as “be really intentional.” Tell your acquaintances that you really want to be better friends! Make an appointment! Follow your friendships!

My Tips on How to Make Friends as You Get Older

I think Jane Fonda’s advice is great! That’s how at least one good friendship came about – I had a cocktail party or after-work thing with a group of people from my law firm and we got on really well with one of the other women. “Let’s hang out more!” said and we applauded that and decided what our next meeting would be that night; Seeing Affordable Art Fair together.

(Spoiler alert, it’s not that affordable!)

I was a bridesmaid at your wedding, and if there was a bridesmaid at my wedding, she would be one of them. (I had really small wedding; my brother was my honorable man.)

This brings us back to our discussion of where to meet people so far – but all of these tips apply to meeting new people to see if you succeed. Graduate events! Charities! (Readers always recommend Junior League.) Networking groups! Hobby groups and classes! Athletic classes and groups!

{relating to: how to make new friends and network}

The other tip I can give is to let your current friends know how important they are to you. Last week I had a phone call with a good friend of mine and at one point she was like, “You know what, this is going to be really weird because we haven’t spoken in a year or so, but you’re one of my best friends.” And right away, don’t say it to ME COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooo We laughed that it could be!

(I also saw a meme on Facebook – “Tell your friends you love them. Do it weird, you say it too often.”)

For my $0.02, I think there are definitely phases of life where making new friends is easier and harder. Among the easiest:

• School!
• Doing the 2L summer partnership job and then coming back to work for that firm – at my old firm I think our summer group was 50 people and the group of people we started with was something like 40 with about 98% overlap.
• New parenting – there are so many opportunities to talk to other parents, between endless “mom and me” classes, or when you’re hanging around to pick up your child from daycare/school. Plus, all of my sons’ playdates had at least two parents on, at least until you felt comfortable dropping your child off at someone else’s house. (Even the Lamaze class was great for us – one of my closest new friends is a couple we met on Lamaze. Plus – bonus! – our kids are almost exactly the same age, so we were even able to do some family outings together.)
• I can also find that it’s easy to make new friends when you move to a new city because it’s just you. have putting yourself out there and being really intentional with friends.
• (Readers, I wonder if you’ve found other times when it’s really easy to make new friends!)

When making new friends isn’t the easiest:

• Almost every time, I guess!

So readers, what are your top tips on how to make friends as you get older? Do you think there are differences between making friends (ie the logistics of how you make friends) at age 20, age 40, and age 60?

Stock photo via stencil.