If you are friends with someone, you should be a good friend. And they should be a good friend to you. This means you both:
- genuinely care about each other
- want each other to be happy
- celebrate each other’s success (though it is perfectly normal to feel a little bit jealous sometimes)
- support each other in hard times
- accept each other for who you are
- trust each other
- are loyal to each other.
Don’t expect a friend to:
- be the answer to everything in your life
- spend all their time with you
- stay the same for ever
- avoid making any other friends or going out with someone
- agree with you all the time
- be completely lovely all the time.
People are not perfect and minor upsets are quite normal in friendships. But if you’re regularly made miserable by someone who is supposed to be your friend – see here.
People have their own lives to lead, and they change. Sometimes you will stay friends, sometimes you will not. It can be very difficult to let friendships go, and can be very upsetting if someone tells you that they don’t want to be friends any more – see here for some advice on ending friendships.
Have a look at our other pages on friendships: