I'm sorry you've lost your friend and I can see how that would make a person cautious. It may be one of those things that happened more because it was a person you've known forever and you were drifting a bit into different parenting philosophies anyway. The peak of this stuff tends to be during the toddler and preschooler years in my experience.
My suggestion would be to think about cultivating friendships with people who have stuff other than kid milestones to talk about. And, have prepared a few changing the conversation approaches. Even something like "I notice we always end up talking about the kids...let's talk about the adults for once. Have you been reading anything good lately... (or are you planning a garden this summer...or whatever).
