Living in an era of smartphones, WiFi, and social media has made it easier for us to make and maintain friendships all over the world. While many of these friends live too far away to enjoy margaritas with on a Friday night, there are some perks to having friends that seemingly reside in your computer.
Here are 15 reasons online friendships are more convenient to maintain, especially for moms:
1. You don’t have to put on makeup or a bra (or even pants) to hang out.
2. Online friends never ask you to help them move.
3. You don’t have to worry about cleaning your house before someone comes over.
4. You don’t have to stress about what your toddler will end up inevitably destroying at someone else’s house.
5. If you’re just too tired to talk or type coherent sentences, you can always communicate through emoticons.
6. Online friends never see the crap you feed your kids, so you know they’ll never judge you for it.
7. You can only hang out with your real-life friends so many times before they realize you only own, like, eight shirts.
8. There’s no need to apologize for the sounds, smells, and other fun surprises that emit from the baby.
9. They’re probably the only people that your toddler won’t tell all of their bathroom habits to. (Since toddlers can’t read or write yet. Score!)
10. You don’t have to stress about the last time you showered… or remembered to put on deodorant… or brushed your teeth.
11. You can interact in sporadic, one-minute intervals between kids using you as a jungle gym. (The only conversations I’m able to keep up with these days take place via text or email.)
12. Don’t feel like chatting/messaging/tweeting anymore? Just type GTG and GTFO, no questions asked.
13. You’ll probably never meet their kids and they’ll probably never meet yours. Which is great, because generally speaking, other people’s kids are the worst.
14. You can communicate via memes, GIFs, and all the other things you enjoy about the Internet but don’t know how to say out loud.
15. When you say something stupid online, you can usually edit or delete it. If only real-life conversations were so forgiving.
Online friends are with people that you choose to interact with. They’re not friends you made because your kids are in the same class or because you both got suckered into running the PTA Bake Sale. Online friendships aren’t made out of convenience or proximity; they’re based on mutual respect and enjoying each other’s sense of humor.
OK, fine, they’re also about the convenience. Let’s face it; as far as friendships go, they don’t get much more lower maintenance than those you don’t have to put on pants for.