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Danny Lavery: More problems in search of a solution today. Let’s chat!
Q. My boyfriend doesn’t like my kids: I’m a single mom of two (6 and 8), and my boyfriend of a year and a half opened up to me that he thinks I have great kids, but he doesn’t enjoy spending time with them. He’s great with them and does things with us out of love for me. We were about to move in together until he told me this. I’m glad he told me, but now I’m hesitant. Is this normal? If we were to continue, is this a relationship bound for resentment and failure?
Dear Prudence,
When my friend “Sally” got engaged, she had suspicions her now-husband was cheating, but married him anyway. On the night of her wedding, one of the groom’s friends got drunk and told me all about the infidelity. He carried out an affair with a close friend of theirs for their entire dating relationship (they’re still close friends and she’s over at their place all the time). Now Sally has a baby with him too. I have been keeping this secret. I didn’t see the point in telling her at the time, since she married him even with serious reasons to suspect him of cheating. But it’s been hard for me to stay close to her knowing what I know. I have had nightmares about it. I know I couldn’t forgive this if I were her, but she mostly knew he was cheating beforehand. She just didn’t want to believe it. She recently messaged me and asked if I didn’t like her anymore since I’ve been so distant. What can I do?! I feel like I can’t continue to be friends wit
Dear Prudence,
We (me, my husband, and our son and daughter) moved into our house about a year ago. We met the neighbors next door about two weeks in. They’re an older couple with grown kids. Our only interactions since then have been a friendly wave here and there. I mostly only see the husband outside, since he smokes. A few days ago, he was outside smoking when I’d just gotten home with my sister and daughter (she’s 2). I asked how his wife was, and he asked after my husband. We were about 60 feet apart so we were kind of speaking loudly. Anyways, he said something about how cloudy it was, and I responded with “Yeah, that’s why we left the park early.” Suddenly I see his free hand wander down to his crotch. I thought maybe he was just adjusting himself so I looked straight ahead to give him a minute, but then to my horror realized he was lingering there. Before I could process what was happening, he took his penis out and started playing with it.