Staying Friends After a Breakup

Breakups are difficult, but what's harder than the actual breakup? Staying friends. Most relationships end with one party mentioning that "but I don't want to lose you as a friend," sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't; actually almost every relationship ends and then there is no communication afterward. I've maintained one of my ex's as a close friend over the years and have made it work so that it is not awkward for either of us and here's how.

Same interests blossom a friendship: Depending on how long you were with your ex will depend on how close the two of you really were. Relationships are generally formed because you have a lot in common with that person, so keeping them as a friend shouldn't be too difficult. You both have the same interests and possibly the same hobbies all you have to do is make sure that you don't hang out as often as you did while dating, maybe once a week to start.

Distance is your friend: Keep some distance because you are broken up, so don't call or text your ex every moment of every day, they want freedom to meet other people so give them that freedom. But be there for them if they need to talk about something. This plays in with the interests portion, you have similar interests but you can't be together everyday because then you are reverting back to a relationship.

Don't get jealous: It's natural that your ex will become interested in other people besides you, so when they do don't let the green monster get loose. Your ex will probably feel the need to talk about their new crush with you because they value your opinion, but you have to be honest. Don't bad mouth someone that your ex likes because you don't want them dating someone else just give an honest opinion. You ended a relationship with this person so don't get ridiculously envious when they start hanging out with someone new.

These are three things I was able to do with one of my ex's and he and I are very close friends. We ended up with a great friendship that we didn't want to ruin, even though we thought about getting back together we both knew that it would ruin the friendship we both had. Not all ex's can become friends but there are some people you don't want to lose in your life, and if your ex is one of them play it cool and you should be able to maintain a decent friendship with them.

Photo taken from: http://www.breakupgirl.net/comics/images12/sfriends01.gif