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I (24F) have been seeing a wonderful man (25) for a year and a half. He is everything I’ve always wanted in a partner, and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. We live on opposite sides of a large, metropolitan city, about an hour apart, he in a home he purchased a few years ago, and I in a tiny, one bedroom apartment, while I finish my graduate degree. We have discussed getting engaged, and we agree that living together before we do is important to both of us — a sort of “last box to be checked before we officially commit to spend the rest of…

“We are from a very traditional family — six children, including five sons and one daughter. All five sons are married and have young children…”

My best friend, “Jane,” is getting married and she sent a wedding invitation to my parents because I’m a bridesmaid and she felt that was proper; she also sent one to each of my two sisters because she knows them and we all hang out. My sisters recently moved back home from college to attend school here so they’re living at home as of right now. She invited both the girls’ boyfriends because they’ve been in relationships for years, but she did not invite my older brother who is also currently living at home. When the invitations arrived in the mail, my brother noticed that everyone except him was invited, and now…

My boyfriend of eight months is still friends with his ex, whom he was with for five years. I understand that he has love and respect for her as a person and that I should be respectful of his past and their relationship. However, their current relationship upsets me. In the beginning of our relationship he spoke with her almost every day by phone (she lives three hours away). I was open with him about how I was uneasy with that and I didn’t understand why they needed to communicate so often. I guess I should mention that they had only been broken up for a few months before we started dating….

It’s time again for Shortcuts. For every question, I’ll give my advice in just a few sentences because sometimes the answer to a person’s question is so obvious and the need to hear it so great that being as clear and frank as possible is simply the best way to go.

Advice for a letter-writer whose future mother-in-law is pressuring her for grandchildren.

I’m 25, studying full-time and working part-time, and I’ve been dating a guy for two weeks. He’s 40, is working freelance part-time, and has never been married, or so he says. We got together — if you can call it that — quite fast. He never actually asked me out, but he bought me drinks and things escalated from there. A few days later he proposed to take me away for a day to a city close-by. I was quite shocked but also flattered at how spontaneous and romantic it seemed, so I thought, “Why not?” I thought it was a bit crazy but also that he must really like me, so I…

It’s time again for Shortcuts. For every question, I’ll give my advice in just a few sentences, because sometimes the answer to a person’s question is so obvious and the need to hear it so great, being as clear and frank as possible is simply the best way to go.

While I was away at Army Basic Training, my now-husband and I decided to get married. His family planned the wedding. We had not been dating before I left for basic training — we had broken up months before, but after I left, we got back together and that’s when we made the decision to marry. I was injured and got out of the military, and the day I got home I found out that about two weeks before, my husband got drunk, had a one-night stand and got the woman pregnant. My husband’s family did the calculations of dates and said that the baby couldn’t possibly be his. I thought I…

“My fiancé and I have been together for five years and have two kids together. Last month we got engaged and now I’m not sure if I want to marry him anymore.”