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I received from my sister your response to her letter, and I feel it is appropriate to provide the correct context for the events described by my sister and my reaction/comments to her. My sister and I had a discussion over her decision to not invite our dad’s wife to her wedding. I explained that, in my opinion, if she chose to not invite her, it would place our father in an impossible situation of having to “decide” between his daughter and his wife, and that it would mean there would be NO chance that our father would attend the wedding. He must exist with his wife (whether my sister likes her…

“Mike” and I dated in high school, went our separate ways after graduation, and then thirty years later got back together. I moved back to where I grew up, and he insisted I move in with him. We love each other and have fun together. He has two daughters, 25 and 23, whom he raised and who lived with him. Their mom was/is around, but for whatever reasons the girls wanted to live with their dad. We have had our ups and downs, but that’s life. I have four sons, all grown, who live far away so we don’t see them much. Life with adult girls is very different than what I’m…

My father has never been a father to me or my brothers. He and my mother divorced and he has since married a woman who is an alcoholic. I guess he feels she is better than being alone. Anyway, I was invited to his house for dinner with my fiancé so he could meet my husband-to-be. (I’m 40 and had finally found someone I wanted to marry.) At the dinner his wife became verbally abusive to me and completely embarrassed me in front of my fiancé, swearing at me and questioning my relationship with my father. This was after she drank a whole bottle of wine. She was also physically abusive to…

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. I talked to a neighbor of nine years about a personal issue. He hugged and comforted me. Four months later he texted me and within two days we were hot-n-heavy sexting, which awoke a latent passion in me after twemty years of no sex. I sent him sexy pics of me and his focus is always on my breasts – tight…

Though only married for a few years, my husband and I have been together exclusively since I was 15 and he was 16 (we are now 32 and 33). He is a massage therapist and I am a homemaker, and we have three beautiful sons together. Two years ago I found out that he had been contacting people via email from classified ads offering “massages.” He told me at first that he was only looking for a massage therapist that could help him out, but he later admitted that he knew they were not legitimate and what they were really advertising. He also was adamant that nothing had come of the contact….

By now, you’ve probably heard about the former Stanford student, Brock Turner, who was recently convicted of raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster after a frat party and was sentenced to a measly six months in jail (which he’s going to appeal). The judge, a Stanford alum, said he didn’t want to give him more than six months, which is significantly less severe than the minimum prison time of two years prescribed by state law for his felony offenses, because it would have a “severe impact” on the rapist. If that doesn’t make you want to scream, consider the argument from the rapist’s father that his son be given leniency because…

My college boyfriend and I reunited three years ago when he called me to say he was getting divorced. I thought it was ok to date him because he had moved out of his house. The divorce was finalized sixteen months ago. His two daughters are in college — a sophomore and a junior, respectively — and he won’t introduce me to them. I think they think I broke up their parents’ marriage, but that isn’t true. He also doesn’t spend anytime with my 17-year-old son and says that kids aren’t involved in this relationship. I am devastated and can’t accept this because it feels like he is using me with no…

I’m 22 years old, and my first relationship ended a few months ago. Now, no matter what I do, whether meeting people in college or even trying dating sites for the past couple years, nothing ever seems to come out of it. Even when I go out with a guy who has the exact same interests I do, and we end up having a good time and having a lot to talk about, he always loses interest after the first date. Each of the guys has said I’m pretty, artsy, smart, and fun to be around, but none of them ever want to put in the effort when it comes to planning…

Hi, I’m back from our family trip to Missouri! It was great to relatively unplug for a few days and take a bit of a break from the internet. I ran around in the grass with the kids (well, Jackson ran while Joanie crawled… though she is getting pretty close to her first steps, I think, eeee), swam in my parents’ community pool (which we had all to ourselves all week), ate Andy’s frozen custard, paid like seven bucks for a six-pack at the gas station (which is about five bucks cheaper than it would cost at a bodega in Brooklyn), won two dollars on a scratch-off lottery ticket at said gas…

Tomorrow our dear Miles turns 11! This has been a very big year for our sweet guy. On top of welcoming a baby sister into the family, whom he is delightfully and almost aggressively ambivalent about, he went on a diet and lost about six pounds and now he can even hoist himself up on top of our kitchen cabinets where he enjoys watching over everyone sort of creepy-like. He’s in such great shape now that his vet gave the ok to reduce his insulin injections from two times a day to just once daily. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if this time next year he’s off insulin completely. That’s how committed…