So my mum generally is great, but there’s one huge mistake she has made that’s left me with a lot of trust issues.

I’m not having kids, but I’d never force my hypothetical kids to cut contact with friends. Once when I was 16 my mum went through my phone and found an old man sending me messages, so she grounded me, and made me pick 3 friends to stay in contact with. I missed the others. She once went on a long rant about how she hated my friends who lived down the road and “what they did” to me, when all I did was drink with them until late hours on a regular basis at age 20. She tried to ban me from going round to their house, but I still went (pre-pandemic), and when I told her I was going to continue going there to see my friends, she almost kicked me out but decided not to kick me out last minute.

Eventually, she accepted that my friends are my friends, and as long as I don’t get drunk every day or let my socialising impact my studies, she’s chill with me going there now (after lockdown has finished, obviously).

But yeah, that’s one thing I would never do. Try and control a hypothetical kid’s social life, especially when they’re in adulthood.