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My husband and I have been together for thirteen years and married for five. We have two children together. I’m 37 and he is 44. Due to strong disagreements and abuse within our relationship, we are getting a divorce. This past summer, he got into a fight and he threw his wedding ring across the road onto the shoulder. My kids and I went to my parents’ and stayed for about two months. When we came back, I saw the ring lying on the end table. I’m very curious as to why he would keep it. I’m grateful as I have always wanted to keep it for our daughter, but I don’t…

I recently had family visit for a few days for Thanksgiving and they plan to visit again for Christmas. I love having them visit, but there’s an issue that has me dreading the next visit: my brother stinks. We have guests take off their shoes when they enter our home and the smell when he takes off his shoes is overwhelming and fills the whole house. For the last few visits, I’ve had him leave his shoes and socks outside, which helps a little. I usually open doors and windows to get rid of the smell, but that’s not always possible depending on the weather. He usually showers soon after getting to…

“I met my ex-wife when I was 14 (I am now 40) and we became a couple that year. Ten years later, our relationship stalled…”

I am in my early thirties, married, and a new mother of one. A couple years ago, a few close friends and I started playing tennis one evening a week. We all loved it and it gave us a chance to catch up between busy schedules, work, etc. When I found out I was pregnant, I chose to quit tennis and my friends all kind of stopped as well. Recently, I asked if they wanted to pick up where we left off and they did. My friend Melissa got word of this, which has been causing me stress. She and I grew up together and were best friends in high school. We…

My mother-in-law is your stereotypical difficult MIL: – She behaves badly when things are not about her or do not go her way. She had a wedding tantrum when she felt she was not being treated specially enough as mother of the groom. In every photo of her she is scowling. Whenever she talks about the wedding week, she refers to her side trip to the Grand Canyon as the highlight of her trip. – She is a manipulative crier and will start crying when she feels she is being “attacked” (i.e. anyone trying to speak to her about her behavior). – She is incredibly self-absorbed and controlling. – One day before…

My ex dumped me about three months ago. Within a month, I started seeing another girl who understood and respected my situation, and we have taken things slowly. (I’m 29 and she is 27, fyi.) All my friends and family thought it was way too fast to find someone else, but I have a connection with her. We are now officially together and I’m extremely happy. We both live at our respective parents’ houses, and while her parents have been nothing but welcoming, my parents don’t want to involve themselves — or see anyone else in my family involved — with my current girlfriend. I asked if she could come to our…

My boyfriend, Rick, and I are having a disagreement about engagement rings that I hope you can help with. Rick’s ex-wife, since their divorce four years ago, has pawned her engagement ring because she “needed” the money, despite everything she got from their divorce settlement. Rick is very disappointed because he spent a lot of money on the ring and because he thought she would have given that ring to their oldest child and only daughter. Now he wants to get me a ring and get married, despite the fact that it is very early in our relationship, but we disagree on what to do with the ring after I die or…

My husband has been estranged from his mom for about three years. The reason is a really long story, but we think she has borderline personality disorder and she can’t take responsibility for her actions. He has no interest in reconciling with her at all. We just got invited to a family Christmas get-together and she, too, has been invited. My husband doesn’t have much family so I’m sure he’d love to see them, but I know he absolutely doesn’t want to see his mom. They don’t really do get-togethers like this, so it’s not like we could just see them all another time. His mom has only seen our older son…

I’ve been living with my boyfriend for a year now, and I have a daughter, Carol, from my previous marriage. Lately, she’s been insinuating that he’s her stepdad. I’m very embarrassed because he’s never brought up marriage. I feel that unless you’re engaged or married, your kids should refrain from calling your partner stepdad or stepmom. Should I tell Carol to stop saying that? I don’t want my boyfriend to feel pressured. It makes me uncomfortable. — Too Embarrassed to Pressure Him

“I am a happily married woman; however, my husband and I have different needs. As a result, we have an unspoken agreement about sleeping with other people.”