Privileged Person Inspires Debate Over Asking Friends to Help With Moving

Ada Elder

Apr 25, 2023 1:00 PM EDT

If you've spent any time on Twitter over the past couple of years, you're probably aware that many people who frequent the site have a pretty flawed concept of friendship. It seems that doing anything for one's friends, besides the bare freaking minimum, can be seen as "emotional labor." Don't even get us started on the friendship-related scripts we've seen bouncing around. Aren't acts of service and empathy essential to being a friend? It would seem that in this day and age, a lot of people missed that memo.

The latest evidence we've seen of curious approaches to friendship comes from @cathrnylavery, an Austin-based tech "founder" who shared an exchange with a friend who asked if she needed help with a move. Instead of giving a normal, thoughtful response, she instead opted to say "I would never ask a friend to help me move. I'm an adult." She followed it up with a message of appreciation, but man did that snark rub us the wrong way. When did asking for help become such a dirty deed? And these days, how can we expect all of our loved ones to have the funds to hire movers? According to Lavery, the practice of helping friends can actually destroy friendship. Maybe she needs better friends.

The tweet seems to have had a similar effect on the people of Twitter, who wasted no time in sharing their disapproval of Lavery's privileged stance. Lavery later clarified that she only meant the "heavy stuff," but it really doesn't help her argument. As my grandma always says, "Many hands make light work." That definitely goes for moving a sectional.