I told myself I would stay in touch with my friends no matter what. I lost exactly one after kids: my childhood best friend. Turns out he couldn’t handle being second to my wife (another childhood friend) and my kids. It was a pretty close second, and I even told him he’s the brother I never had and let him stay with us rent free for a bit.
He didn’t like that I couldn’t just run off on any of his spontaneous plans and just left our home and even our friend group entirely.
All my other friends understand and we put together a Discord community and some game servers for when we can’t get together. I really appreciate my guys, and now that my kids have a few years on them I have a bit more freedom. My wife is great about helping me spend time with them.
I had a similar thing happen except the childhood friend turned out to be a pedo and after my kid.
Not enough evidence to take to the police, but I’ll be there to stand as a negative character witness should the need arise.