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My boyfriend, “Tony,” and I have been together for over six years and have been living together for almost a year. Tony was known to be quite the ladies’ man before we dated, and although I trust him 100% with my heart, I feel that he may not always tell me 100% of his plans when he hangs out with his boys. I’m 28 and my boyfriend is 33. Recently I felt the urge to look through his phone, and it seems as though a few months back he was planning to go to a hockey game with his friend but decided not to go because I was going to go as…

My boyfriend, “Levi,” and I got together fairly quickly after his separation, but his marriage was over years ago – he actually stayed as long as he did because he has a large family and they were all close with his ex. He finally realized he couldn’t stay in a bad marriage for his family, and he left. He kept telling me that his family is warm and loving and to give them some time to accept me. It’s been ten months and they still refuse to support our relationship. I’ve met Levi’s kids and they love me. But Levi’s family refuses to even meet me for coffee, or acknowledge I exist,…

As a follow-up to yesterday’s discussion, I’m curious, those of you have been engaged: How long did you date your significant other first? And how long was your engagement before the wedding? (Or, if you didn’t make it that far, how long was the engagement before it was called off?) Here’s my story:

Three quickies today: I’m a senior in high school (age 17) and my boyfriend is a sophomore in college (age 19). We’ve been dating fourteen months and are very much in love. At his college, like at most schools, there is a fair amount of underage drinking. I personally have a very strong conviction against drinking, so I have asked my boyfriend to promise he won’t drink with his friends. It would make me extremely uncomfortable if he were to drink, plus he is at school 2000 miles away and I’d be worried about his getting hurt. He says he’s happy to honor my request and he won’t drink; my question is,…

I am pretty much in the same situation as this LW. I have been with my fiancé, “Tom,” for five years and we have a 2-year-old daughter together. Tom also has an 8-year-old daughter with his ex. I left my home and family three years ago so that Tom could be close to his elder daughter, but now his ex wants to move again, another six states away, and Tom wants us to follow. At first, I dug my heels in and said I didn’t want to move, again. It was important that our little one be close to my family (an 8-hour drive from where we currently live) and his family…

I am moving to a bigger place with my husband, and I recently mentioned to my mother that there will be a spare bedroom for a future child as we hope to start the adoption process in a year or two. This wasn’t news to her as we have been talking about it to close family for a year or so. She knows adoption is the route we are looking at because I have a medical condition that may be passed to my children, and I prefer not to risk it. She cut me off and said, “I have to say it”, and went on about how my biological clock is ticking,…

I live in a large three-bedroom apartment with two other girls — “Mia” and “Jane” — both of whom are my close friends. Jane is moving out at the end of our lease and we are getting a new roommate whom we met online. Mia’s boyfriend has been living with her since before I moved in a year ago, but he is not on the lease. We don’t split our rent evenly four ways but instead have it calibrated according to room. Mia and Jane both have large rooms with multiple windows and lots of closet space, with Jane having her own bathroom attached. My room is very small, with very little closet…

My girlfriend, “Tonya,” and I have been together for around four months. She is great and I care for her a lot, but I am not attracted to her body, especially when she’s naked. I’m naturally athletic and in proportion, so I guess I expect my girlfriend to be the same and anything other than that seems unattractive. I don’t mind that she’s curvy, it’s just that her disproportionate body is unappealing to me. We enjoy having sex with each other. And the things we do seem to be enough to make me want to sleep with her. However, I can’t make myself like her body. She’s 43, so I have to…

Tom and I are 35 and 34 years old respectively. We have been together for two and a half years, living together for one and a half of those years. Tom was a great guy and everything was perfect when we started dating, and when he asked me to move in, I felt I was ready. Things started going downhill soon after we moved in. Tom stopped doing the things he used to do; he was getting so comfortable that I felt like we were roommates. Nine months after we moved in together, I was diagnosed with Stage 4B lymphoma. No one saw this coming. Tom never wanted to talk about it…

My Instagram feed these last couple weeks has been filled with photos of other people’s fantastic-looking vacation photos: Iceland, Tuscany, Israel, Barcelona, London, Vancouver. I’m on vacation, too, but nowhere exotic (visiting my parents in Springfield, Mo.). I enjoyed our long weekend trip to Charleston, SC., but I’m looking forward to traveling internationally again, hopefully some time soon (it’s been five years since I left the country). Prior to having kids, Drew and I were lucky enough to get to do some great traveling, both internationally and domestically (that’s me in Beijing in 2008 in the picture above). My favorite place was probably Paris, and I’d be happy to go back any…