ArcaMax

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dear Eric: How do you stay friends with someone who puts zero interest in maintaining an adult friendship?

My best friend from high school (of more than 20 years), had kids a few years ago. The kids are young but out of the baby stage. My friend constantly asks to hang out but never offers anything that is not totally kid-focused. Think story ...Read more

Dear Eric: My brother and his wife just had their first child, and the first grandchild on both sides of the family. I am so excited to be an aunt, and love the baby. So does my mom, however she keeps saying something to my brother and I that we both are getting tired of.

She has said on multiple occasions: I love the baby more than you two (my...Read more

Dear Eric: I am friends with a person I dated for a short while. We’re in our 50s. The only reason I still see her is that she doesn’t have any other friends.

She is also a sole parent to a difficult teen who also has no friends and has no desire to make any (she tells me this). I do not enjoy her company, although she is a good person.

It...Read more

Dear Eric: We live in a suburban neighborhood where the homes are fairly close together. We have a very nice screened-in porch and a large deck that we added two years ago. Typically fall is our favorite time of year to be outside on our deck, and we like to eat breakfast and dinner on our porch.

Our next-door neighbors are heavy pot smokers ...Read more