My partner and I moved to a pretty remote area in the west side about a year ago and we have been struggling to make friends.
I am pretty extroverted but I work from home so I don’t really have work friends I can go out with and with COVID going out to make friends has been near impossible. She is pretty introverted but still likes to have quality time with good friends.
The school she goes to is tiny btw so her friend options are very limited. I used to love when she took me to the parties her friends invited her to but when we are together we tend to just talk to each other and have fun together instead of hanging out with the group.
I know her friends like me but I cant help but feel that they would feel awkward coming and interrupting us. On the other hand it can be daunting for my partner to leave my side when she is so comfortable around me in a relatively uncomfortable environment for an introvert.
She has been getting invited to hang outs less and less and gets upset that she doesn’t feel she has a good group of friends at school. I suggested that maybe I was the issue and that perhaps if I stopped going with her she would be forced to hang out with her friends.
She dismissed the idea and insisted that she prefers when I go with her but I still felt that I was preventing her from making friends. The last time she told me she was invited to a party she asked me to go but I told her I would not be going. I was happy to DD for them but I didnt want to keep holding her back from branching out. She was upset and kept asking me to go but I stood firm.
She didn’t get upset but did tell me she preferred when I came with her. I told her that, being an extrovert, there is nothing I would have liked to do more than go to a party after being cooped up for so long but I still didn’t want to go. She went and had a great time, said she hung out with her friends all night and even made new ones but still wishes I respected her request to go along with her. I do feel bad for thinking that I knew what was best for her more than she did but seeing as I may have been right I am not sure I should.
What should I do?