Dear Carolyn: My longtime partner is in many ways a wonderful woman. I definitely will be her committed companion for as long as we both shall live. However, she is a total slob. While our living room is kept up fairly well, the bedroom looks as if a tornado has just come through. The bathroom …
Dear Carolyn: My girlfriend is 29. I’m happy in our relationship and think she’s awesome. However, in her past she had an affair with a 65-year-old married grandfather who was her career coach. She was friends with his family. I find this immoral and very hard to accept … and totally out of character for …
Dear Carolyn: What do people really want to hear when they ask when my husband and I are going to have children? When I say we don’t plan to, the next question is, why not? Do I tell them it was a tough decision to make and one I find myself struggling with but know …
Hi, Carolyn: My overbearing sister-in-law just moved her son’s birthday party to a week later. When we originally talked a month ago, I asked when it was planned and said great, because my son will be on a Boy Scout retreat the following weekend. Now, she moved the birthday party and is mad that my …
Dear Carolyn: My mother is 85. She’s been married to my father for 54 years now. In the past 10 years she has taken us to task (literally screaming) when we show her photos taken during family gatherings. She says we are trying to make her look bad. I think she is beautiful, but I …
Dear Carolyn: I live in Florida. When my sister, her husband and their two teenagers come to visit, they treat my home like a hotel — wet towels left on the floor, things broken with no apology, no help with meal preparation/setting or clearing the table/cleaning the dishes. Everyone sits at the kitchen table on …
Dear Carolyn: My dad and I were never close. He worked a lot and did not spend time with us growing up. My parents divorced when I was a teen and I “chose” my mom and had little relationship with him for years. Dad is now remarried and lives across the country. My son is …
Dear Carolyn: Four years ago, I left my teaching career to care for my son, who needed a great deal of medical care. He has been doing very well and no longer requires my constant attention. I would like to go back to my old career. My family, both immediate and extended, are not openly …
Dear Carolyn: My cousin, “Dara,” and I have been lifelong friends since we were born three weeks apart. The friendship has had its natural ebbs and flows, but I can’t think of a time when we didn’t see each other at least once a month, even though she is a busy professional while I’m a …
Dear Carolyn: Our wonderful, beautiful daughter is living at home to save money, studying to be a pharmacist, earning straight A’s. She also works 30 hours per week as a technician in her field. She is intelligent and hardworking, a nice person with a great sense of humor, too. My husband and I could not …
