DEAR ABBY: Ever since I was a child, my mom has regarded me as wise, thoughtful and intelligent. She has confided about family issues, tensions at church and cheating at her workplace. Abby, I don’t want to be her confidant. Am I doomed to always hear her never-ending problems? She creates them herself by jumping […]

DEAR ABBY: My stepdaughter, “Allie,” (whom I’ve raised as my own since she was 2), has banned my 39-year-old daughter’s 19-year-old girlfriend “Taylor” from coming to her house for the holidays. She dislikes that Taylor is 20 years younger than her sister. Because of this, I decided to celebrate the holidays at my house instead […]

DEAR ABBY: I’ve known “Bianca” since high school. She’s my neighbor and godmother to my son. I consider her a sister, and we travel and spend holidays together. Our families get along well. A month ago, my body started aching all over. I have been feeling sick, and my doctor is trying to figure out […]

DEAR ABBY: I am a 55-year-old father of a 7-year-old child. My social skills and experience are rusty due to graduate school and post-graduate training years (12 years, to be exact) without much social interaction. I believe I missed an opportunity to bond with our 7-year-old. Five years ago, my wife and I ran into […]

DEAR ABBY: I have been in a text relationship for nearly a year. I call it a text relationship because we communicate solely through texting. Because I’m not a video chat person, it doesn’t bother me that we don’t Zoom. Additionally, the few times he has tried to contact me via video, we just don’t […]

DEAR ABBY: Our son and his girlfriend had our first grandchild 18 months ago. We helped them move out of their rental house before the baby was born and buy a cute little house, which we made sure was in good shape before they moved in. (They had ruined the rental property with a couple […]

DEAR ABBY: A few years ago, my daughter went “no contact” with both sides of our family — grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, as well as cousins. Since then, I have been struggling with how I should answer acquaintances who ask, “How is she doing?” as well as those who ask, “Do you have children?” […]

DEAR ABBY: My parents have been divorced for almost 30 years. My father is still furious with my mother, and she is indifferent toward him. My son is about to graduate from high school, and both grandparents want to attend the ceremony and dinner afterward. However, Dad refuses to be in proximity, or even sight […]

DEAR ABBY: I started a new job a year and a half ago. It’s in a small office. My boss and I are the only employees. I enjoy the job very much, but there’s an aspect of it that has really started to wear on me. Increasingly, my boss has been asking me to take […]

DEAR ABBY: I’m in my early 40s and have been working hard since my mid 20s. I have a nice house that my wife and I are trying to pay off and two kids. We live pretty comfortably, but by no means are we well off. My dad is very well off, and he finances […]