Life Advice
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Lifelong Friend's Drinking Is Driving Me Away
Dear Annie: My best friend and I, both 54-year-old females, met two weeks before kindergarten. Except for a couple of years, we have stayed friends throughout our lives. We see each other every few months when I'm in town for a doctor's appointment. Since last year, we've been going to concerts and a couple of comedy shows, and we attended our...Read more

Asking Eric: Friend annoyed about taking in evacuating friends during LA fires
Dear Eric: I have been friends with "Bill" for more than 25 years. When the fire started in the Pacific Palisades, we had to evacuate our home. My wife and I went to one friend's condo for two nights, then to another couple's house for four nights and then we went to Bill and his wife's guest house, which is separate from the main house.
We ...Read more
Family Keeps Waking Me Up and Wearing Me Down
Dear Annie: I've worked as a night-shift nurse for the past six years and have always struggled with sleep, but lately it's gotten worse. I'm lucky if I get four hours during the day, and when I do, I wake up feeling anxious and jittery. I've tried blackout curtains, white noise, melatonin, you name it. I even sleep with earplugs and my phone ...Read more

Asking Eric: Husband objects to wife’s work dinners with male colleagues
Dear Eric: I am a female executive employed by a large global corporation. It is a common practice in my workplace, and an expectation of my job, that I meet with colleagues, customers and service providers, sometimes while traveling for work, often solo, often for business lunches and dinners at restaurants.
My husband is a business owner in a...Read more
Outgrowing Old Bonds
Dear Annie: I'm 27 and recently moved back to my small hometown after nearly a decade away. I took a job here to be closer to my mom, who's recovering from a stroke. It's been an adjustment, but I'm managing. The problem is my former best friend, "Kelsey."
We were inseparable in high school but drifted apart during college. No falling out, ...Read more
Single File: A Kid's-Eye View
DEAR SUSAN: I've been reading a lot of letters in your column about child support. How about a kid's perspective? My dad never sees me. Why should I want to see him? He owes my siblings and me thousands of dollars' worth of food, clothing, medical treatment, etc. I'm not complaining about apartments that don't have carpet or having to watch ...Read more

Asking Eric: Father’s questions keep offending adult daughter
Dear Eric: I am 80 and my daughter is 44. I am a retired professional and my daughter, a college graduate and business owner, gets offended when I question anything she does.
She’s considering going back to school to enhance her marketability and when she showed me a counseling program she was interested in, I noticed one of the required ...Read more
Caring for an Aging Parent Who Won't Cooperate
Dear Annie: I'm an only child in my early 40s, and I'm at my wits' end trying to care for my 74-year-old mother. She lives alone and insists she's "just fine," but I can see she's slipping -- physically, mentally and emotionally. She has high blood pressure, diabetes and serious arthritis, but she won't stay on her medications. She hasn't been...Read more

Asking Eric: Wife’s comments to son-in-law bother husband
Dear Eric: We are retired grandparents to 7-year-old twins who live close by. We are delighted to help with kiddo chauffeuring, grocery shopping or anything else needed by two very hard-working parents.
Today after dropping off groceries, my wife noted that the refrigerator, in her opinion, had an unpleasant odor and was very quick to share her...Read more
Breaking Up Without Breaking Him
Dear Annie: I've been with my boyfriend for over three years. We met when I was a freshman in high school and he was a sophomore. I fell head over heels right away, and we became official nearly a year later. Over time, I learned about his painful childhood -- absent father, a mother who had him young and has since moved away, a hostile ...Read more

Asking Eric: Parents’ house has become free hotel for friends
Dear Eric: I live in a small town about five hours from my parents, who live in the biggest city in our state. They have a beautiful home with a great downstairs room that is perfect to stay in when I visit. My father has Parkinson’s, so I make it up close to every month to hang out and try to make life for my mom a little easier. Sometimes I�...Read more
Love Met With Silence
Dear Annie: I never thought I would be in this position, but I have become estranged from my adult daughter. We used to be incredibly close. When she was younger, we had long talks late into the night, and we would laugh until we cried on road trips. I was there for every heartbreak, every success, and I truly believed we had a bond that would...Read more
Milllennial Life: The Script is Ours to Write
I had a frilly pink dress in second grade that I only wore a handful of times. There are some photos of me striking some sharp poses in our backyard, but after I outgrew that dress, I didn't follow up with any similarly typical frilly costumes of girlhood. As I grew, I went with comfort over style for a long time -- and some might say even to ...Read more

Asking Eric: Brothers spar over 35-year-old loan
Dear Eric: My brother has children with whom I was extremely close when he and his wife got divorced in 1989. He never supported his kids, never paid child support and drank away everyone’s money, including $20,000 in rehabs that my parents paid for.
My brother asked me if he could borrow $5,000, and he would start making payments to pay it ...Read more
Love, Boundaries and the Thermostat
Dear Annie: I'm really struggling with how to handle my daughter's relationship. She's in her early 20s and is smart, funny and ambitious. I'm so proud of her. But I just can't seem to get behind her boyfriend.
He's not unkind, but he's ... aimless. He can't seem to hold down a steady job, he leans on her emotionally (and sometimes ...Read more

Asking Eric: After job loss comes shame and meddlesome advice
Dear Eric: I had a bad falling out from a very toxic job a few months ago. Since it ended, I’ve been dealing with feelings of shame and betrayal, but I’m doing what I can to clean the fallout from my brain. I’m in therapy, I’ve taken up some new hobbies, and I’m reconnecting with old friends. I’m taking some time off from full-time ...Read more
Procrastination Today Could Cost Me Tomorrow
Dear Annie: I have a job I love, but I'm at risk of losing it because I'm lazy and I procrastinate. My job is mostly autonomous, which makes it a little too easy to put things off and not work hard -- but now it's catching up to me.
Do you have any advice on how I can become a harder, more proactive worker before it's too late? -- Lazy in ...Read more

Asking Eric: Son family treats parents’ house like a storage unit
Dear Eric: My wife and I uprooted from our rural community and bought a home to be nearer our grown children who had both settled near the city. Soon after, our son and his family of four and a dog lost their housing as their rental situation failed after the landowner passed away.
Of course, we took them in and several months later they found ...Read more
Keeping Hope Alive After a Family Rift
Dear Annie: I'm struggling with how to move forward after my adult daughter, "Rachel," cut me off two years ago. We used to be close. I raised her as a single mom after her father left, and we leaned on each other through a lot. Things started to change after she got married. Her husband, though polite, has always kept a distance from me. I ...Read more

Asking Eric: Husband has extreme reaction to wife’s affection
Dear Eric: My husband and I have worked hard to create consistent communication in our relationship that has lasted 10 years. We have both struggled to get to a good place, which we thought we had achieved.
Then a month ago, my son was home from college. My husband (his stepdad), my son and I were watching TV. My son was sitting next to me. I ...Read more
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