Foul-Weather Friends

Situation:  You've heard of 'fair-weather friends,' right?  They're the kind of friends who are happy to be with you if you've got a job, good health, fine house and car, and make no demands on them.  Have a tiny little problem and the fair-weather friend makes a hasty exit.

This is an account of a 'foul-weather friend.'  Christina was a young mother with three preschool children and a fourth on the way.  She was happy in her life but - tired!  Christina met Gracie at a young homemakers meeting.  One of the first things Gracie said was, "You need help, don't you?"  Gracie was a tremendous help when the new baby was born, babysitting the older ones, bringing over food, and even giving a baby shower for Christina just before the baby came.

Both young mothers were overweight.  Gracie joined a group and quickly took off all her extra weight.  Christina just wasn't able to tackle this.  She couldn't afford to join a group and was hoping that Gracie would share some recipes or something.  Gracie would not share so much as a snippet.

The ladies got around to talking about how unhappy they were in their marriages.  After several more years of careful dieting and exercising, Christina took off all her extra weight and looked stunning.  She didn't talk about her marriage but Gracie kept bring up past hurts, "Remember when he. . ."  and "What about when he. . .?"  Gradually, Christina got the picture: Gracie was not happy unless her friend was unhappy!  Negative!  That's all she was!

Lessons learned:  Beware of both types of friends: the person who will be your friend only when things are going very well for you and also the person who will be your friend only when things are going badly for you.  They are really not friends!  Especially harmful to you is the foul-weather friend, the negative person who makes you unhappy and will bring you down.  Please surround yourself with positive, happy people.

Outcome:  Christina really didn't want to associate with Gracie any more, so she didn't!  They talked at meetings but Christina never went over to her house again.