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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.

I’ve been dating my boyfriend, “Dan,” for about nine months now. Things are ok, but not nearly as good as they were in the beginning of our relationship. When I met him, he had just started working at my company under a different manager in my division. It wasn’t until months later, when we were on a project together, that I really started to get to know him. I was married at the time, but things were very unstable and I would have left my husband regardless. Dan and I met for drinks and hit it off instantly. He told me that was madly enamored since he met me but that he…

I’m 19 and still live with my parents because I made the financially-sound decision to take my basic college courses at a community college instead of going away to a university. I am still taking a full course-load and also working part-time. I’m also dating a guy my dad loves and wants me to marry. My mom, who is really hormonal/monopausal and controlling and also somewhat ’empty nesting’ even though we are all still in the house, thinks my boyfriend is okay. Unfortunately, every time I want to go away with my boyfriend — even just on day trips — it’s always a big deal. At the same time, my brother, who…

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.

You posted my letter in January, about whether I should contact my ex’s kids about a couple of items of theirs still in my possession. I have followed your secondary advice and the advice of some of the commenters, which was to do nothing. The book and the pants are still in my car, after almost four months, and it seems like it would be weird to send them now, but I also haven’t managed to make that decision final and get rid of them. Anyway, I actually have a follow-up question: I haven’t heard from my ex at all, and after four months I’m pretty confident that I won’t. I’m really…

A few months ago I Googled a guy I had awesome sex with 10 years ago. His Linkedin profile came up an I added him to my network, not thinking anything beyond his accepting the invite to connect would happen. He did accept, and after several emails catching each other up, he asked to share a picture so I sent him a few innocent pictures and he did the same. We kept emailing for a few more days. Then one day I took the initiative and sent him an innocent text message. We then texted until 4 AM, remembering the short-lived summer fling we had a decade ago. Ever since, we have…

When I was young (starting around the time I was five) my mother was emotionally unavailable to me and particularly to my sister, to the point that she severely neglected my sister when she was in diapers and left her alone in her crib day in and day out while she slept (not because she was depressed, as she would later claim, but because she had been out until dawn drinking and sleeping around behind my poor father’s back). Eventually, she got pregnant by another man and had to tone down her wild ways while she incubated my second sister, whom my dad has always treated as his own (and who is…