Survivor's family forces contact with her abuser
Even though my ex-husband and I have two children together, we have NO contact.
I have been seeing someone for almost a year and we have talked about getting married.
My good friend knows about both my past and my present. I was speaking with this friend the other day and the friend asked what my ex thought about my potential upcoming engagement. I replied that as far as I knew my ex didn't know anything about it because I don't talk to him.
Why would someone ask this (especially being a good friend who knows what happened)? How should I have responded?
-- No Longer His
Dear No Longer: You responded appropriately to this query from your friend.
My own instinct is that your friend might have posed this question to give you a heads up that your ex-husband does, in fact, know about your current relationship.
Whenever you are wondering why someone is asking something -- or framing a query in a specific way -- you could respond, "I'm curious: why are you asking?"
Dear Amy: I was surprised to see this headline over your recent column: "She's become a tramp and I can no longer condone it."
"Tramp?" Really? You're showing your age.
-- Upset
Dear Upset: In 17 years of writing this column, I have never used the word "tramp," nor would I.
I supply headlines for my columns. My suggested headline for that particular column read: "Friendship falters over dangerous liaisons." Evidently your local newspaper decided to go another way.
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(You can contact Amy Dickinson via email: askamy@amydickinson.com. Readers may send postal mail to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or "like" her on Facebook.)
