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I’ve been with my boyfriend for three years, and our relationship is so easy and fun. He’s my best friend. Most importantly, we agree on all the big things and plan on getting married, but I’m not in a rush. We’re in our late twenties and are looking to move in together at the end of the year. The issue is that his parents don’t know about me. My boyfriend wants to tell his parents, but he’s scared they won’t accept me and us as a couple. His family is Muslim and traditional, and they don’t know he doesn’t follow Islam strictly anymore. Telling them he’s seriously dating a white, non-Muslim woman…

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. 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…

I have been in a same-sex relationship with a beautiful girl for the past seven months. She has one-year-old twins with her ex-boyfriend whom she was living with when we met and who was abusive to her while she was pregnant. He continued to be verbally abusive to her after the twins were born and used to call her stupid for wanting to date women. She got tired of name-calling and moved in with me. He didn’t know where she moved, so she felt safe. She never stopped letting him see his twins — she would take them to his place. After six months living with me, she moved from my home…

I have been a stay-at-home mom for a while, but for several reasons my husband and I have decided that I need to return to work. I have been offered a fantastic opportunity, but they need me to start ASAP. Unfortunately, the daycare we intend to use, as well as any other local daycare, does not have openings right now for our children and will not be able to get them in for two months. So, we have two options for interim childcare: my mother who lives nearby or hiring someone. My mother is willing to keep my kids at her house, but we have a few hang-ups. She is keeping my…

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. I have been with my husband for about six years and we are expecting our first child at the end of next month. Our close friends are getting married in a different city the day before my due date, so, since my husband cannot go to the wedding, he really…

I’ve been dating my boyfriend for about three months. We’ve been close friends for about one year. I am from Latin America, he’s European, we’re both 30, and we’re in his home country. When we started hanging out six months ago, he told me he had broken up with his first girlfriend some months before and he was still processing that, so we remained friends until he was ready to move on. Before anything serious happened between us, he told me that he’s going to be a father. He had a hook-up and they used a condom, but there was an accident. He suggested taking the day-after pill, but she said it…

I am a 46-year-old woman who has been involved with a 55-year-old guy, “Craig,”for the past two years. He has two gorgeous kids, ages seven and twelve, and was together with their mother for twelve years but never married. I was married for ten years and have a son who is in the last year of school. I absolutely adore Craig and miss him when I am not with him. However, he is either incredibly selfish of late or maybe I am just being too needy. He is continuously flying from South Africa, where we live, to the UK or other locations for three days at a time for car shows. That’s…

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. 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…