Hi Bek, It's apity I'm so far away too, we could be mates

After ds was born I was unbeliavably lonely, and I set myself the challenge ofmaking friends. One thing i always find really difficult is small talk with people I don't really know, and that made it hard to meet new friends. i set myself some rules. i never say no to an invitation, providing it's practical, and I won't say no anymore just because i'm scared to go. If I'm stuck for converstaion, i ask people about themselves- people love to talk about themselves. I am ok with silence now, it used to freak me out if there was big pauses in converstaion, but i made myself not to rush to fill them- silence can be as good as talking. And I stopped second guessing myself- i used to replay conversations over in my head to see what i'd said that was 'wrong'- it's a habit I'm still training myself out of.

I'm pretty lucky these days in that I've got a handful of good mum friends (a few of who I met on BB). It must be difficult with three little ones- i'm finding it hard with two- but hang in there. You need to meet lots of people to siftout the ones who will become friends, iykwim.

HTH