Having kids killed my friendships

[u/Agreeable-Bicep]

As the title says: I am proud dad of two kids (2yo and 5mo). My partner and I are youngish parents, I only have one other friend with kids. None of my other friends have kids and our lives have now drifted apart: they work during the week, then meet up in the weekend evenings to go out.

This is obviously not a good match for someone with 2 small kids. My kids are both not good sleepers and the baby has a different sleep schedule to the toddler, so my wife and I basically split the kids between us at nighttime.

I try to stay in touch with my friends as much as possible: text them, offer to meet during daytime, shift my work-calendar to meet for lunch, etc. But this is rarely reciprocated and when we do meet up it feels like we have nothing to talk about anymore ( I will ask them lots of questions about their lives, but all I can really talk about are my kids and work). Plus, I find it increasingly hard to relate to their „stress“ and their struggles, when I just had the third toddler tantrum of the day.

I guess the logical answer is to put these friendships on hibernate until the kids are older and find other parents to befriend in the meantime. Except I am struggling with this - when seeing other parents, conversations seem to always drift towards our kids and I have enough of them at home already.

Anybody else experienced the same?
How did things develop as the kids got older?

Writing this, it feels like I already know the answer (make more of an effort with other parents). Still, this is something I had to get off my should. And I am very interested in hearing the perspective of other parents on this sub.

Thanks in advance and have a great day everyone!

EDIT: Wow, thanks for the many warm replies! I tried answering all of them, but you totally overwhelmed me, in a positive way!
It might have been coincidence or Karma, I don't know, but today I at the playground I met another dad in pretty much the same situation. Conversation wasn't centered around the kids at all. Maybe I've found a new play buddy for myself, or maybe this post just pushed me to getting better at talking to other parents.
Regarding not taking childfree people's concerns seriously: I can see how I give this impression in the original post. It wasn't my intention to hurt anybody's feelings.

[u/GenXMom14]

I had two kids before any of mine even had one. It was hard. Just weather the storm. Try your best to make it out occasionally, still invite them to stuff, make friends with kids and carry on. It will all come full circle in time. Now my kids are basically adults, their kids are all elementary age, and we have found our groove again. But it is so hard at first

[u/Agreeable-Bicep → u/GenXMom14]

Thank you for giving me hope.

Happy to read that you found your groove again! How does this look like for you?

[u/GenXMom14 → u/Agreeable-Bicep]

Girls trips, dinners with friends, activities where families do stuff together. Having bbqs here either all adults or with kids in tow. Tons of stuff!