Columns

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…

This letter was posted on Reddit this week: My husband and I have been happily married for four years, together for six. We’re expecting our first child, a boy, due in six weeks. We’ve honestly never been happier with each other. When we found out we were having a boy, my husband requested we name him after his father. I had no problem with this, though his father’s name is not one I like at all. But we both agreed to make his father’s name our son’s middle name. For clarity, let’s say the name we agreed on was Thomas Shaun. Two weeks ago my father died very unexpectedly. I have had…

When I started this site over five years ago, I had no idea that weddings would prove to be such a controversial and emotionally-charged topic. But over the last few years, I have received more wedding-related letters than on any other topic. In honor of Wedding Week Day here on Dear Wendy, here is a round-up of the site’s all-time most popular wedding columns. (I know at least a few will spark a trip down memory lane…)  

This is the time of year that I would normally be doing Wedding Week here on DW. Well, guess what? I forgot all about Wedding Week until just this minute and don’t really feel like making it a big thing this year. Some of you are now popping open the champagne and screaming, “Hells yeah, bitches!” but, before you get too carried away, I’d like to dedicate this single post to all things wedding-related. Think of this as a condensed version of Wedding Week, where we can discuss wedding trauma and drama and joy and fun. (You can still pop the champagne though.) Are you currently planning a wedding? Feel free to…

My sister is always complaining to me about her money issues. She and her husband are pregnant with their second child, live rent-free with her parents, have two brand new cars with $300 payments, and have high car insurance due to multiple wrecks on both of their records. She gets mad at her husband because he asks her to find a job so they can have extra money and move out of her parents’ house, but she wants to be a stay-at-home mom. He works under the table at a restaurant, and he supposedly gets paid every other week but sometimes it’s only once a month. Thankfully, they get WIC and food…

The following letter appeared in a recent column of The Ethicist in The New York Times: I have been with my boyfriend for several years, and I love him very much. We each decided to study abroad for the spring semester of our junior year and have found ourselves on opposite ends of the globe. We will be apart for almost six months, with only intermittent access to the phone and Internet. Before we left, we agreed that it would be best to temporarily open our relationship. We wanted to fully enjoy our respective experiences and take the opportunity to explore being with other people. We decided that we would not discuss…

New readers, welcome to Dear Wendy, a relationship advice blog. Read some of the most popular Dear Wendy posts here. If you don’t find the info you need in this column, please visit the Dear Wendy archives or the forums (you can even start your own thread), do a search in the search bar, or submit a question for advice at wendy(AT)dearwendy.com. My boyfriend and I have been dating for two and a half years, during which time I have been around his family on numerous occasions: graduations, birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc. His grandmother passed away Friday evening, and he did not bother to tell me until the following evening–and only then…