Dear Amy: I would like an objective opinion on a situation I haven’t faced before.

A while ago, we met and became good friends with a couple our age.

We then introduced these friends to some of our family members that we socialize with regularly.

We’ve noticed that in recent months our family members have started socializing with our friends – without us.

I mentioned this and asked my family members about it.

They said that this happened accidentally.

I felt so silly and tried to ignore it. However, then I noticed when I scrolled through social media that it was happening more and more at planned events that we were not invited to join.

I commented on social media that we would have enjoyed being included and was promptly blocked.

It hurts, but what hurts worse is that this same family member also blocked my young adult kids, who were hurt by it as well.

I’d like advice about where to go from here.

I’ve thought about asking the family member why she would do this but I don’t want to start a bunch of family drama.

Suggestions?

– Excluded

Dear Excluded: First, a word about “blocking.”

A block on social media because of a resolvable issue is like throwing a hip-check when a conversation might do wonders. In my opinion, blocking over non-emergency issues (like this) has actually caused more serious problems than it attempts to solve.

Unless there is much more you aren’t revealing, the choice of your family member to then go through and apply this block to your children is ridiculous and just flat-out rude.

I need to add, however, that your own choice to lay open your own obviously hurt feelings on social media though your comment (where many others could see it), was also unfortunate.

I’m not blaming you for having these feelings, but Facebook is not generally a good place to reveal your vulnerability, especially to people who are both reactive and rude.

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“Ask Amy” is coming to an end on June 30, 2024, after 21 years. You can email Amy Dickinson at [email protected] or send a letter to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068.