Could friendship come down to five simple rules? In her smart and sassy new book, The Girl Code, Diane Farr reveals the secrets behind being a great girlfriend -- including these top-five, never-fail rules:
1. Reciprocal Therapy
If your heart is broken and your girlfriend spends hours trying to put it back together, find a way to reciprocate, in whatever way is meaningful to her. Girlfriends always deserve to be repaid for their efforts (whether it’s helping organize her closet or buying her the little dress she could have picked out for herself while she was helping you.) When you don’t bother to return her favors, it’s not friendship - it’s freeloading.
2. “There But By the Grace of God Go I”
A little reminder about bashing your fellow females: Before you slam a sister, remember that you can’t judge her unless you’ve walked in her shoes. We need to stand up for one another or no one else will. Be a good teammate.
3. Never Count
If you don’t know how many men you slept with, it will never get you in to trouble. If a man asks, you don’t know. If he insists, tell him it is against The Girl Code to reply.
4. Don’t Bet the Farm
It is never good or plentiful to date your girlfriends’ boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, crushes, long-term attractions, or brothers, because the odds are against you that she will ever be your friend afterward, even if you marry one of them.
5. Never Betray the T-shirt Collection society
All women know that we secretly collect men’s garb, until we marry them, at which point it’s all ours anyway. This starts in high school with varsity jackets, progresses in college to all sporting attire (highest points going to sweatshirts,) and postcollege to man-tailored shirts, suit jackets, and eventually socks. Never admit that we compare, collect and grade our wins.
What does the Girl Code say about dating? Take a look at five of Diane's rules for the single girl looking for love.
Want to meet other women just like you? Talk about friendships -- old and new -- on the Friends For Life message board.
From "The Girl Code" Copyright (c) 2001, by Diane Farr, published by Little Brown. Reprinted by permission of Little Brown.
