"Prudence" was a pseudonym, and the author's true identity was not revealed at the time. The situation is poignant, really. Take your husband’s advice and drop it.DEAR ABBY: I have been married 11 years to my husband, who is one of nine children. Case in point, from Prudie’s Thursday column: Dear Prudence, I’ve been dating my (perfect, wonderful, ideal, etc.)
Mondays are Mondays, which means it’s hard to get up in the morning, and they are long days, full of meetings, catching up on email, figuring out what I said I’d do over the weekend and didn’t, regular work, and then the highlight of my week, an hour with the kiddles at This Monday was enhanced by a ribbon cutting ceremony at the library (a rather moving one at that), the excitement of losing my purse (I think/hope I know where I left it), and a young writer more interested in bolting out the door than crafting his personal nemesis. His parents are wonderful people, and staying at their home is like staying at a resort—private pool, three golf courses to choose from, and the beach nearby. They set off lots of fireworks on our property.The man painted our fountain a color of his choice, even though it didn’t need to be painted and we didn’t approve the color.Throughout the past year, they invited additional family members to stay at our home without asking us, and some minor damage was incurred.We requested that they clear it with us first if they wanted to have anyone stay there in the future.We like this couple and want to keep them as friends, regardless of their actions.However, they say that since we don’t trust them, they’ve returned the keys to the house.What is the appropriate action to take at this point?Dear Bound: After you change the locks and hire someone to serve as a caretaker of the property, and after you repaint the item you never wanted painted in the first place and repair the damage these people inflicted in your absence, you should sit down and examine the statement they made to you about trust.You don’t trust them because they haven’t been trustworthy.Your neighbors left you wide open to theft, damage and the liability you might face if someone was injured on your property. A couples therapist, as well, could be useful in thrashing out the real issues. All letters must be sent via e-mail to Creators.com requires Javascript for full functionality. My problem isn’t that it’s the only picture she has out but that I am excluded from the family picture on the day I supposedly became a part of their family. I had a Another constant source of questions is the blooming of childhood sexuality. Groaaaaan for the pun. He's transformed from an interesting, considerate, generally happy-go-lucky guy into an angry and bitter person who is only decent to me in front of other people. boyfriend for just over two years. My husband and I have had a rough year—changes in my career, buying a new house—and had to cancel our plans for vacation earlier this summer. I mean, in a wedding picture, it’s unlikely the bride is off to the side or in the back, right? Can I also say this is a good argument for why not to do 8 million family pictures, covering every possible permutation of relative? (unless things are boring at home, in which case I’ll see you, like, tomorrow).Oh boy, does this take me back to junior high and the early days of high school….those days when half of my friends dabbled in vegetarianism, and the rest were old enough to wonder about what was in hot dogs, but too young to come to terms with their concern.Please be clear: I’m not belittling vegetarianism as a lifestyle choice–just laughing a little as I recall the legions of girls I knew (I may have been one of them) who adopted it for a week or two, and whose vegetarian diets consisted of tater tots, Skittles, and Big Macs without the burger. DEAR ABBY: My mother, who is 80 years old, hums her own made-up tunes. I think, rather, she probably thought she was being “healthy” by loading up on the plain buns rather than the mystery tube steak that’s supposed to accompany it.The bewildered woman thought the girl was being rude by taking all the buns (“that CAVIAR is a GARNISH!”), but in a corporate suite like that, especially one that’s all you can eat, I think they’d be refilling the food as it runs out. Advice readers are Slate’s most loyal users, according to Bill Carey, senior director of strategy at the website, and Dear Prudence gets the most traffic of any regular feature. We strongly recommend you pick other subjects and see whether you have more in common. My husband told them, “We’ll see,” but now they have it in their heads that we are definitely driving together (12-plus-hour trip down), and told the parents. This is our time together, and I don’t want it used to please everyone else. Cell phones are, alas, now part of life, and either people don't care that they're bothering others and may be overheard — or they've never given it a thought. One evening, the four of us stayed up and talked, and I ended up having to defend my more traditional values against his anti-religious and very liberal views.His first wife was a blonde, and his present wife is a brunette.