Ben is Emma's half-brother as they share the same father but yes it's annoying how only people from Ross' side of the family (with the exception of Ben) is at Emma's 1st Birthday. In fact Ben & Emma never shared a scene together.

When Rachel moved out after Chandler moved in Rachel gave her key back to Monica. So regardless of the fact the locks changed when Joey smelt gas and Treager had to get someone to break the door down and subsequently change the door and locks, Rachel no longer had her old key then anyway.

yes sorry half brother.

Also they all gave their keys back at the end of the last episode

Considering that Rachel didn't get on with her sisters and her parents couldn't be in the same room as each other, it doesn't surprise me that none of them were there

Not surprising no, i wouldn't expect to see them there and maybe Rachel felt it was easier not to invite them. Especially after the baby shower drama. But I still think she could have used their absence as ammunition to guilt the "Friends" with.

Ben though, the way Ben was cast aside by father of the year Ross is just...well it's a core gripe/rant of mine.

There is the fan theory that Ross lost custody of Ben after Phoebe swore in front of him

And a core gripe of mine is people who jump to the conclusion that Ross didn't see Ben in the later seasons just because we didn't actually see it on screen. It's highly possible he saw Ben often, but we don't see every minute of the Friends lives on screen.

I know what you mean yea, If an episode spans over a few days and we don't see them eat does it mean they are starving and may die? No, It means we just didn't see it occur

Ross was a terrible parent though

Yes he was. I hated the episode when he was suggesting what his 'thing' is and he said academia, science and being a good father. He was not a good father and he just seems conceited thinking that he is the only one of the group with any intelligence.

He may have been 'book smart' but the rest of his life was a complete cluster fudge. He was clueless about life and made some utterly ridiculous decisions.

Dating Bruce Willis' daughter wasn't the best life decision

Bruce Willis's daughter who was one of Ross's students

oh i think thats unfair what exactly makes him a bad father

yes he wanted his son to play with boys toys but alot of men act like that oesnt make him bad

How about him being so bothered that Rachel may move to france but never once mentioning that his child was going too?

Regarding Ross' relationships, well two of them.

So he was in a relationship with Elizabeth. But watching back, why was she told stuff that Mona wasn't? To me it seemed that Ross was with Mona a lot longer than he was with Elizabeth which confused me.

So when Bruce Willis' stars as her Dad in S6, at the restaurant Ross announced to her Dad that he has a son from his first marriage, to which Elizabeth obviously knows about. When Rachel accidently reveals to him that she and Ross were married, he says "you two were married?" to which Rachel says "oh sorry thought you were talking about Emily".

Elizabeth was told about all 3 of his marriages, and seemed to be cool with Ross hanging out with Rachel when literally that same year they had gotten married.

But they weren't even together for long.

Fast forward 2 seasons and Ross is with Mona. It seemed they were together longer, but why did Ross keep her so in the dark about everything? Mona wasn't told that:

- Rachel was living with Ross
- Rachel was pregnant with his baby.

You'd think that being in a (i think) more serious relationship with a more mature woman for longer, he wouldn't have kept her in the dark. Wouldn't be surprised that she didn't know about his other marriages.

However some could say that Ross learnt from his mistakes or felt he told Elizabeth too much, so closed himself up for later relationships.

Either way, Mona was treated appallingly she didn't know anything + he kept leaving her stranded at certain locations

Out of all the girlfriends that Ross had over the years I think Mona was probably the nicest. As you say she put up with all this crap including having Rachel's father yell at her and all the above etc and she was so nice about it. The straw that broke the camels back was Rachel moving in which I can understand as up to that point she had forgiven Ross for approx 10 other things by then. Julie is close behind Mona in the nice aspect. She had to put up with Rachel making snarky remarks just because she decided she liked Ross at that point.

that was all rachel though wasnt it-she liked ross all of a sudden because he bo9ught her a duck?

rachel was constantly selfish always wanted to get her way

They all had their selfish moments like that, But that was Rachel at that point. She was a selfish self absorbed materialistic person

I know it was all Rachel, that's who I meant when I said 'she decided she liked Ross at that point'.

She was rude to Julie and Charlie because she liked their respective boyfriends at the time, she went to London with the intention of breaking up Ross & Emily. Rachel could be a right attention seeking cow at times

With a programme like Friends, I try not to take it too seriously. With a lot of TV series - soaps especially, they keep a character log, so before that character has even shot any scenes they fill out a diary on them - including all the history, and their birthday etc so they can refer back to it throughout. It always surprised me that Friends didn't do this. I mean it's not a big deal but a little consistency wouldn't hurt.

The only thing that used to annoy me, though not hugely, was the door/key situation. Do the doors on the apartments automatically lock or not? I mean in TOW Underdog gets away, where all the food burns, the door had obviously locked automatically. But in most of the episodes people just walk in and out freely.

And Convincing Bonnie to shave her head again so Ross wouldn't fancy her as much...

I'm not jumping to the conclusion he never ever saw him but he was definitely mentioned an awful lot less after Emma was born. Even Ross's dad forgot about him

Haha if he lost custody for anything Phoebe did it should be her showing up at his school impersonating his mother

Monica and Ross's touchy feely relationship was always weird to me. In the episode where phoebe gives birth she's just sitting on his lap.

It's so weird.

It's funny because looking at the other friends none of them are overly close to their siblings.
Chandler is an only child of course.
Phoebe and Rachel don't get on with their sisters and rarely have anything to do with them.
Phoebe did give birth for her brother but doesn't have a close relationship with him - understandable as they only met later in life.
Joeys 7 sisters, you get the feeling he's a good brother to them but their relationships are maintained off screen

Both would be contributing factors

New gripe! In TOWT Chicken Pox Phoebe tells the gang that she met Charlie sheens character when,he threw salt water taffy into her case when she was busking. She also wrote a song called Salt Water Taffy Man. But in a much later episode Ross gives her a piece of said taffy and she acts like she never tried it or heard of it!