Parents Of All Stripes Gather Round Reddit To Mourn The Friends They Lost Over Parenting Squabbles

Losing a friend to parenting practices is a mommy and daddy milestone right up there with seeking out mom friends (as well as failing to procure mom friends). The “friend break up” certainly has its place in the sappy pop music interludes of romantic comedies, but losing a close and dear friend over the minefields of vaccinations, breastfeeding, and fertility treatments continues to be the rom com plot nobody has chosen to write (yet).

Nevertheless, the experience prompted an array of responses from parents of various parenting ideologies who came together on Reddit to share their sad stories of losing friends due to their — and sometimes other’s — parenting choices. Not surprisingly, much of the drama includes social media, alleged parent-to-parent bullying, and complete exhaustion from perpetually being on the defense, so in short, the universal threads of contemporary parenting.

This digital campfire is started by a simple prompt coupled with your fairly standard story of Facebook pissy-ness:

Next up, a textbook hardcore anti-formula loon who will apparently endanger her kids just to avoid the Devil’s powder:

On the flip side, formula feeders who take every comment ever about breastfeeding — ever — to heart aren’t exactly BFF material:

And if formula isn’t sending you straight to the 7th circle of hell, than your IVF surely is:

Don’t forget to watch that circumcision language on Facebook:

Nothing puts a damper on a friendship like a whackadoodle anti-vaxxer:

And losing a multi-decade relationship to even the decision to have kids is definitely tear-inducing:

But, in closing, sometimes it doesn’t really suck to lose them:

(photo:  Whiskeygonebad)