Jeanne Phillips
LATEST STORIES BY JEANNE PHILLIPS
DEAR ABBY: Fiancee treats man more like a child than as a partner
DEAR ABBY: I’m engaged to a delightful woman from a foreign country. She’s a divorcee, and her 19-year-old son is doing well in college. She essentially raised him herself. Because of some spectrum disorder and ADHD symptoms, her son was apparently a handful. I am healthy, have multiple advanced degrees (including an M.D. and a Ph.D.), and have enjoyed a successful and lucrative career. I have raised six happy, healthy and independent children. I’ve worked very hard and have a substantial bankroll.

DEAR ABBY: Close relative refuses to make good choices in life
DEAR ABBY: My cousin (more like a sister) has made some extremely rash and concerning choices over the last year. After she had her second baby, she left her husband and started seeing a series of borderline-abusive men. She’s now in the process of signing full custody of the children over to her ex-husband and impulsively buying a house out of state.

DEAR ABBY: Alcohol overpowers love and reason for engaged couple
DEAR ABBY: My fiancee and I have been arguing almost every day. We have been verbally and emotionally hurting each other. I love her very much, but she has a severe alcohol disorder, and I want her to stop drinking. She keeps begging me for money whenever she runs out of her own. She wants me to buy her more alcohol, but I refuse. She has been mean and abusive to the people she loves, including me.

DEAR ABBY: Parent and daughter still struggle to find balance
DEAR ABBY: I haven’t had a holiday with my grown daughter, “Charly,” since she left the state 12 years ago. When she came out as a lesbian, I wasn’t very accepting and didn’t handle it well. I have since apologized.

DEAR ABBY: Readers respond to writer who refuses to dye
DEAR ABBY: Regarding “Silver Girl in New York” (Jan. 5), whose husband is making her feel less loved because she decided to not colour her hair anymore, this is her decision to make, not his. He needs to grow up.

DEAR ABBY: Wife values gambling over her 10-year marriage
DEAR ABBY: The woman I’ve been married to for the last 10 years is spending her time away from home. She isn’t seeing another man or hanging out in bars. She leaves at any time of the day and goes to the casino. She also plays online throughout the day or evening. She stays out all night until sometimes 8 or 9 o’clock the next morning.

DEAR ABBY: Mother dumps all of her problems in teen’s lap
DEAR ABBY: Ever since I was a child, my mom has regarded me as wise, thoughtful and intelligent. She has confided about family issues, tensions at church and cheating at her workplace. Abby, I don’t want to be her confidant. Am I doomed to always hear her never-ending problems? She creates them herself by jumping to conclusions and suspecting everyone has ill intentions. While I understand this is to protect herself, it’s exhausting to listen to and to advise when I know nothing will change.

DEAR ABBY: A clash of attitudes tears at blended family
DEAR ABBY: My stepdaughter, “Allie,” (whom I’ve raised as my own since she was 2), has banned my 39-year-old daughter’s 19-year-old girlfriend “Taylor” from coming to her house for the holidays. She dislikes that Taylor is 20 years younger than her sister. Because of this, I decided to celebrate the holidays at my house instead of hers.
