...if the reason you were letting your friendship slip away was because of her son? I have a friend who is fairly close - she was a bridesmaid in my wedding, and we've known each other forever.

But over the last six months I've really not made much of an effort to get together with her at all. We've hung out 4-5 times in that time period and would've hung out more but I've made no effort - we've gone to her house when invited, but that's it. The reason is that my son is constantly bullied by her son. Every single time we go over he ends up making fun of my son (for a speech delay), hitting him with toys, pushing him into a corner, etc. He ends up getting sent to his room for the rest of the visit but not until after the damage is already done for my son who spends the rest of the visit timid and wanting to leave. The last time we left her house he ran to the car. Anytime I mention them he says he does NOT want to see them.

She mentioned last month that we need to get together soon and I simply said "yeah" but didn't go to any great lengths to make it happen. I've told her I'd be down for a mom's night soon (but with kids making that happen is tough!) and that's been the extent of it.

I feel like the friendship is slipping away which is sad but at the same time we're in a bit of different social circles these days so if feels natural for that to happen anyway. But DH thinks I should be upfront and just say WHY I've pulled back and be brutally honest -- your son is really mean to ours and that's not acceptable and it happens every single time we see you. But I'm not sure if that's the right approach. I don't want her to feel like I'm criticizing her parenting even though I do believe some of the fault is hers - she doesn't pay attention to what her son is doing, and usually waits to discipline until he's already hit several times or been rude or whatever.

What do you guys think?