The importance of staying away from unsuitable friends to protect marital life.
The benefits of having good friends in life are well-known, but some people continue to spend a lot of time with their friends after marriage, ignoring their spouse. Others completely cut off their old friends after getting married.
In a marital relationship, the role of friendship must not only be defined but you also need to sift through your friends after marriage and set some aside. If you want to know which of your friends could be harmful to your marriage, read this section from Family Plus.SelMagzread more.
After marriage, cut off these friends.
After marrying, you should be selective about your friends and avoid some of them. Dangerous friends for marital life include:
Friends of the opposite gender.
Men and women should not socialize with friends of the opposite gender after marriage, and those who wish to maintain friendships with such individuals should adjust the level of their interactions.
If you have some friends of the opposite gender in your friend group and feel the need to hide the level of interaction from your spouse, it’s essential to cut ties with that friend.
If you find yourself becoming too close with a friend of the opposite gender and prefer to share feelings or seek advice from them instead of your spouse, it’s time to worry. You should decrease or cut that relationship as such friendships can be damaging to your marriage.
Friends who cheat.
Men and women should avoid friends who are unfaithful as these friends justify their actions with strange excuses and narrate their infidelities dramatically to make it seem like they had the right to cheat.
You should know that cheating has no justification and the mindset of such friends can influence you, because studies show that destructive behaviors can be contagious, and many unpleasant behaviors and wrong reactions can be transferred from others to us.
Therefore, friendship with unfaithful friends diminishes the disgrace of cheating after marriage for you. Those who do not keep their promises to their spouse may also be untrustworthy in friendship.
When a cheating friend reveals their secrets, you may feel guilty because you want to inform their spouse about their infidelity, but at the same time, you can’t disclose their secret as it would cause a disaster.
Friends who show off.those who flaunt happiness.Continuing friendships with those who exaggerate their happiness and frequently talk about how much they love their spouse, and what they do for them, is harmful because these individuals make their successful marriage appear flawless next to yours, prompting you to constantly compare your life and spouse and setting your expectations so high that you cannot be satisfied with what you have. This comparison and entering a silly competition will harm your marriage.
Friends who do not respect boundaries.
Continuing friendships with those who know no boundaries is unhealthy because these friends may drop by unannounced, disrupt your plans, invade your private life, and quickly become too familiar with your spouse.
It’s better to remove overly close friends from your list as every relationship has its definition, and these friends may intentionally try to be too close to your spouse. Continuing this friendship is a constant temptation for your partner, making it difficult for them to resist.
Friends who only complain.
Maintaining friendships with those who only complain about their marriage and consider themselves unfortunate while seeing you as lucky is not right. Relationships with these toxic individuals are detrimental to your mental health due to their negative energy.
These friends often paint your spouse as a good person and their spouse as bad, portraying themselves as unfortunate. For instance, if they see your spouse helping you at a party, they might say: “Lucky you, your husband works like a pro while mine doesn’t lift a finger.”
These friends constantly compare your life with theirs and express endless jealousy, negatively impacting your marital life. Friends who dwell in regret create negative energy, causing your spouse to think about the bigger favor they are doing for you, leading to a false sense of superiority and sparking arguments.
Friends who want all of you.Friends who have no understanding of married life and want your full attention are damaging to your marriage. These individuals do not want you to go on trips with your spouse or spend much time with them; they prefer you to always hang out with them.If you wish to maintain these friendships, they will often make sarcastic comments when you interact with your spouse and their family. On the other hand, if you want to keep these friends and behave like you did when single, your spouse may label you as irresponsible.
You are more responsible for your marriage, and it’s better to let go of these friends as true friends respect your life and value it.
Friends with bad habits.
Research indicates that a friend’s behavior affects an individual, with many undesirable traits being contagious, transferring more easily than positive qualities. Thus, your relationships with bad and dangerous friends—like those who waste time, smoke, break laws, speak rudely, etc.—should be clearly defined.
Continuing relationships with such friends may not affect you directly, but imagine that their negative influence could impact your spouse.
Friends who constantly provoke you.Some friends repeatedly provoke their friends, saying things like, at home it should always be your way, why are you always so accommodating to your spouse, never apologize, etc.Many of the suggestions these friends give for dealing with your spouse are dreams they have for their own marriages; wishes they couldn’t fulfill because they realized that such behaviors would ruin their relationships.
These friends frequently point out the weaknesses in your life, ultimately causing you to complain about your spouse while retaining all negative attributes for future conversations, using the same words and descriptions for your spouse, leading to a bitter and ultimately destroyed relationship.
A portion of these friends, having experienced bad marriages themselves, often give poor advice based on what little they’ve learned from life. Others have no understanding of your problems and provide cheesy, generic suggestions.
Friends after marriage.
Continuing friendships after marriage.Friends of the opposite sex.Cutting off contact with opposite-gender friends after marriage.
Bad friends in marriage.
Friends that ruin marital life.
