Holiday wishes to my favorite group chat!

I was going to call you to wish you a happy St. Patrick’s Day, but then I thought it would be better if I texted.

In the group chat.

I love holidays. I love my friends. I do not always love celebrating holidays with my friends in the group chat.  Someone starts it off—“wishing you all a festive St. Patrick’s Day!” and then everyone else chimes in.

“Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of YOU!”

“Love you all—may the luck of the Irish be with you!”

Next come the memes and the gifs. What could possibly be cuter than Snoopy blowing a kiss of four-leaved clovers to you? Or here’s one of a leprechaun drinking green beer! Then come the hearts. They are usually from the thoughtful friends who want to individually acknowledge all the comments made so far by “hearting” them. The beer drinking leprechaun gets a “haha,” of course.

I know it’s a holiday when I pick up my phone and have 82 new notifications.

Did you ever want to break up with a text group?

I will admit it—sometimes group texts stress me out because I don’t know how to respond. If I’m in the middle of something, is it ok to mute the notifications? If I don’t react to every gif and meme, does that come across as not caring? I love my friends, but if I’m otherwise occupied, am I obligated to respond to all 82—oops, it’s up to 87—new unread notifications when I finally pick up my phone?

My group chats all have names, some of which are obvious. There’s the family group chat. The neighborhood group chat. The work group chat. The college group chat. Some of my group chats are so old, we outgrew our name—like the playgroup moms. We started drinking coffee together while our babies had tummy time. Soon we graduated to playdates, meeting at the local playground to talk about potty training and catching up on our lives as we sat around the edge of the sandbox. We’ve kept in touch all these years—now our babies have graduated to college and beyond. The moniker “playgroup moms” doesn’t describe us anymore so we renamed the group Flamingos. Not because we resemble large pink birds but because life is about balance. Get it? (Insert “LOL” emoji)


One of the best things about text chats with cute names is that it makes gift giving easy. Former work friends are the rainbow unicorns—it made for years of unicorn-themed presents—Christmas ornaments, socks, magnets, even unicorn chip clips. My favorite is a unicorn with a rainbow striped ball stuffed in his nostril. You squeeze his belly and –achoo—it shoots the ball across the room.

Some days, I think I have more than enough unicorn tchotchkes to last a lifetime. Other days, that hilarious gif of a flamingo drinking wine is just what I needed. While I may not always respond to your texts, I always value your friendship.

Can you relate?

Maybe you should share this post with your friends…in your favorite group chat!



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