ArcaMax

Dear Annie: I'm 60 years of age. I've been trapped my entire life taking care of people -- caregiving and people-pleasing. I'm always making sure everyone is OK when I'm all emotionally screwed up.

Since I was a teenager, this has been going on with family, friends and marriage. How do I separate myself?

I have observed that the majority of ...Read more

Dear Annie: I'm a professional woman who's been married for over 40 years and has two wonderful, happily married daughters who live out of state. My husband's been retired for almost 10 years from a job he loved. His adjustment to retirement has not been easy.

For many years, he assisted our children with our grandchildren but did ...Read more

Dear Annie: My husband and I met while he was going through a challenging divorce and instantly fell in love. Because we have a significant age difference, he wanted to get married and start having kids as soon as possible. His best friend "Robert" made it clear that he did not approve of our relationship or engagement. (Keep in mind, this ...Read more

Dear Annie: My husband is passionate about doing what we can as individual citizens to combat climate change. He believes the largest impact any one person can have is decreasing their driving. So, to do his part, he has started using the public transit system as much as possible.

Our city's public transit is far from perfect and transforms ...Read more

Dear Annie: My husband and I got into a pretty bad argument earlier this year, and in a drunken state, he told me to "f--- off." I was sober and shocked.

In our nearly two decades of marriage, we'd never had a history of being disrespectful to each other, and it was obvious he had some pent-up anger he needed to let out. Since that night, we've...Read more

Dear Annie: We appreciate your care for community members in the Spokane, Washington, area and the time that you spend responding to questions from community members who contact you. We share your commitment to supporting others and being a resource for individuals in need.

After reading the advice related to domestic violence that you ...Read more

Dear Annie: When my wife was pregnant with our first child, I was worried that once the baby came, I would have tremendous difficulty sacrificing my time for him.

I was worried that when I wanted to watch the game, I'd be dragged onto the floor to play dinosaurs. I was worried that I would be bored endlessly reading children's book after ...Read more

Dear Readers: Happy Father's Day. Below is a beautiful letter written for Father's Day. While there is sadness, there is a wonderful message namely that love is always the answer.

Dear Annie: I am a newly minted member of the group of us who will spend Father's Day without our fathers. Without the phone call. Or the card. Or the flowers or ...Read more

Dear Annie: I've been seeing this man for eight years. It seemed to be going great in the beginning and then started slowing down. We still go out to concerts, dinner and shopping. But lately, within the last three weeks to a month, I'd say, I found out that he messaged one of my friends. When I questioned him about it, he said he was trying ...Read more

Dear Annie: My husband has four grown children -- one from his first marriage and the other three with his late wife. Talk about drama! Who talks to who? Who can't stand who? Who gets annoyed when one of them comes to visit us? Today they could be BFFs, and tomorrow they stab each other in the back!

Recently, my husband has been saying he'd ...Read more

Dear Annie: My wife and I married four and a half years ago, the second marriage for both of us. I have had dogs virtually all of my life. My wife was aware of this. I brought three dogs into the marriage, and my wife was also well aware of their habits. She likes dogs, but she does not adore them as I do because of the hair that they shed and ...Read more

Dear Annie: My husband's brother and family are somewhat estranged from our family due to one family being "anti-vax" and the other "pro-vax." Even before COVID-19, we had become more distant because of our opposite political views -- one family supporting the former president and one family not. We used to see each other several times a year,...Read more

Dear Annie: I met my boyfriend over a year ago, and he told me that he had been divorced three times, with the last one to be finalized in a month. I had been divorced for many years and had not dated steadily for a few years. I had been celibate for 13 years.

I lowered my standards for this one. I must say that he was a kind, respectful and ...Read more

Dear Annie: My 19-year-old son has been floating through life since he graduated from high school. He decided early in May that he was not going to return to college, so my husband, his stepdad, who has been in his life since he was 4, and I decided that he either needs to move out by July 1 or have a full-time job with a goal that he is ...Read more

Dear Annie: My wife said that you would never print this letter because the subject matter was not worth your time, but I'm going to try it out anyway. For the past six months, my wife and I have saved $5,000 to have our basement redone. We have four children. Given the current political situations, I asked if instead we could use some of that...Read more

Dear Annie: I have been with my fiance for the last five years. We have a child together, and she is going on 2 years old. Well, when our child was four months old, my fiance quit his job due to his health, and I went back to work full time. It's been over a year now, and he's been cleared to work. But he hasn't. He hasn't even attempted to ...Read more

Dear Annie: I am a high school sophomore, and my close friend of more than 10 years is suffering from an eating disorder. At lunch, it can be challenging for her to eat, but she takes it out on other people by criticizing and making fun of their food. One time, she even told me I was eating an apple wrong.

I know she is projecting her own ...Read more

Dear Annie: My wife and I have been married now for 37 years. Our three children are all grown up with their own careers and families.

The problem is I'm no longer physically attracted to her. She is 60, and I'm 66. We're both somewhat overweight, but she has noticeable bulges of belly fat, which is not uncommon for women her age. Needless to...Read more

Dear Annie: Please help, as I am out of ideas about what to suggest. I have a small group of friends whom I feel lucky to have known since secondary school.

The problem is that every time I suggest doing anything other than sitting around each other's houses drinking coffee -- with or without families -- I get shot down. "My car won't make it...Read more

Dear Annie: I am writing as a parent and as a grandfather.

My son and his wife and their 12-year-old son visit almost every Sunday to relax, talk and have a sit-down dinner at the dining room table, which my wife and I provide most of the time with much pleasure and joy.

But I have two questions: (1) How do you "imply" that they could bring ...Read more