Life Advice

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Health

Asking Eric: After family deaths, mother gets meaner and spreads lies

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: My father passed from cancer in 2020. He and my mother were married for 53 years. One year later, my only sibling died suddenly from a massive heart attack. So, it's just my mother and I left. We have never had a good relationship. Very tense, lots of jealousy (her, not me).

Both my parents were very close to my children growing up. ...Read more

Asking Eric: Sister’s relationship is consuming her life

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: My younger sister is in her sophomore year at university (her school is far from home). I’m a couple of years older than her, but we are best friends. She just celebrated her one-year anniversary with her boyfriend (same age as her), who she met in her first week in school.

I love her boyfriend and support their relationship – he...Read more

Asking Eric: Husband’s mean comments about house clutter cause arguments

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: My husband and I have been married for more than 30 years and enjoy each other's company. As many couples, after many years there are certain things that we do that get on each other's nerves. He has always been a neat and organized person, and I have always been a bit messy. My closet is usually messy, and I forget to put things in ...Read more

Asking Eric: Woman fears being left alone after father and partner die

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: I am a woman in my late 50s. I have never been married or had any children. It was always my father who raised both myself and my sibling (who passed away at the age of 40). I am in a long-term relationship and we both respect and love one another.

My father is in his late 80s and not in great health. I cannot stop worrying that when...Read more

Asking Eric: Husband’s grocery splurges create strife

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: My husband and I, both happily retired with good pensions and Social Security, make our weekly grocery trips together. We take turns paying with our flight-points credit cards. Once the bill arrives, we split the cost of our groceries down the middle, sharing the expenses equally for everything we purchase at our preferred grocery ...Read more

Asking Eric: Regular manicurist came close to drawing blood. Time to fire?

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: I’ve been going to the same neighborhood nail salon for nearly 10 years. They are usually great, but about two years ago, I continuously began to be relegated to a nail technician, “Sue,” who is very inconsistent, doing just OK sometimes and then on occasion was truly awful.

Sue has come close to drawing blood while cutting my ...Read more

Asking Eric: Husband’s connection with ‘professional tease’ tests marriage

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: I have been married to my husband almost 10 years; we have two children. I will not lie and say these past years haven't been without challenge. Separation and divorce have been tossed around.

Lately, my husband goes out quite frequently at all hours of the night. My gut has been telling me something is not right, so I went through ...Read more

Asking Eric: Friend takes too many leftovers after holiday meals

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: I have been sharing Thanksgiving with dear friends for decades. About three years ago, they learned a friend of mine, with whom they are acquainted, had no plans for the day. So, she has been invited and now attends annually.

These are kind and generous friends, so they offer their guests the opportunity to take home doggie bags. My ...Read more

Asking Eric: Widowed songwriter sings about new girlfriend, but his sons aren’t all ears

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: I’m a 75-year-old amateur songwriter who enjoys recording what I write. I’m also a widower going on three years. When my wife of 42 years was alive, I wrote songs for and about her and us. I’d record them at home and send the recordings to our boys and in-laws who always responded positively.

I received great joy in sharing my ...Read more

Asking Eric: Retired parents always get stuck footing the bill for blended family

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: My husband and I are senior citizens in a large, blended family. Back when we were younger, and both gainfully employed, we paid for everything any time our blended family got together. Over the years, the family grew larger numerically.

The fact that we’re retired seems to make no difference in the expectation. Any time the group ...Read more

Asking Eric: New boyfriend is overly friendly to younger women

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: I'm a woman in a new relationship with a fabulous man who doesn't seem to understand an issue I've brought to his attention. I noted recently that when he checks out other women in front of me, I feel disrespected. He listened and said he understood completely.

I didn't have the courage to take it a step further, which is ridiculous...Read more

Asking Eric: Caregiver son struggles with guilt over not doing enough

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: The last four years of my father's life, I was a near constant caregiver. I visited him daily, did his lawn work, took him to doctor's appointments, to the barber, occasionally to dinner or a movie. I always took care of his finances and medications.

He would call me as many as 10 or 15 times a day about various things or just to ...Read more

Asking Eric: Social butterfly struggles to make close friends

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: I am one of many lonely adults struggling to make close friends. It's never come easy for me, and it's compounded by the fact that I'm an introvert who works from home part time with three small children, living far away from family.

My husband is a great friend and support, but I'd love to have more female friends. Several years ago...Read more

Asking Eric: Remarried after spouses died, couple is unsure how to re-arrange burial plans

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: My wife and I married two years ago. We were both widowed after long happy marriages and feel blessed that we have found each other.

When our first spouses died, they were each interred in different local cemeteries. In each case, the headstones include each surviving spouse’s name, birth year and, of course, no death year (yet!).�...Read more

Asking Eric: Sister-in-law didn’t include other family in holiday event

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: My family and I will be traveling from California to the UK to visit my husband’s parents with our two kids. During our visit, my husband’s brother, his partner, and their young daughter, will be joining us from Sweden for part of the stay.

We recently found out that my husband’s brother’s partner booked tickets for an event ...Read more

Asking Eric: Husband’s excessive manners leave wife feeling left behind

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: I have an ongoing disagreement with my very polite and well-mannered husband. When we enter a venue together (restaurant, store, etc.), he opens the door/elevator door to let me through and then holds the door open so that at least two or three people and sometimes large groups of people, can walk in ahead of him.

He then follows ...Read more

Asking Eric: Billionaire brother won’t offer help to struggling sister

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: I am a 55-year-old female who has a disabled daughter. The father is long gone from the picture. I make a middle income living and could live comfortably if it were not for my disabled daughter. Things go well for a while and then a crisis occurs, and she is back in the hospital accruing large medical bills.

I have one brother, and ...Read more

Asking Eric: Partner’s mother confesses uncomfortable paternity secret

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: I live with my partner of two years and his family (mother, younger siblings and mother's boyfriend).

Yesterday, his mother confided in me that the abusive and domineering man my partner knows as his semi-estranged father, is not his biological father. My partner is not aware of this. I'm also not sure if any of his family knows. The...Read more

Asking Eric: Craft hobbyist feels bad about throwing away finished creations

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: I'm a craft hobbyist. I enjoy embroidery, painting by numbers, building papercraft models, etc. My joy is really in the process of creating these, but I find our walls and shelves overflowing with the finished products. I suppose I'm proud of them, but I'm beginning to avoid doing these hobbies because we're running out of space to ...Read more

Asking Eric: Sister claims sister-in-law ‘crashed’ nephew’s wedding

Life Advice / Asking Eric /

Dear Eric: I’m 65 and have always had a cordial but not loving relationship with my 64-year-old sister as our parents never encouraged their children to be loving to one another.

Last month, my nephew was married in a civil ceremony at my sister’s Midwest home due to an immigration requirement relating to his now-wife. Because we received ...Read more

 

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