Q Dear Miss Abigail: My parents are coming to visit soon. Problem is, they drive me batty with their subtle nagging and criticism of how I run my house. I don’t know if I can survive Christmas. Why don’t they let me grow up? Weary Daughter A Dear Weary: You would think that the joy […]
Stop Drinking and Listen To Your Mother
Q Dear Miss Abigail: If you let your thirty-one year old son live with you, and you’re trying to help him get on his feet, and you’re selling him a car, shouldn’t he respect you and quit drinking? Signed, Dolly A Dear Dolly: Oh, goody. This is an easy one ~ YES! In fact, if […]
Family Feuding
Q Dear Miss Abigail: My mother and I disagree about a lot of things, especially the way I dress. I am perfectly neat, and I feel like I choose things that suit me and my personality. Still, she feels like picking a fight with me about every little thing. How can I tell her that […]
Household Secrets Revealed! Story at 11.
Q Dear Miss Abigail: What does one do to stop their children from revealing household secrets? Signed, Lori A Dear Lori: Whew! I think it’s time to have a little family conference to let those kids know how you really feel about their blabbering mouths, and to let them air their “issues.” Henry and Elizabeth […]
Just Say No to Minivans
Q Dear Miss Abigail: My husband and I live in a major metropolitan area, where the average age at marriage is about 37.5, and the average amount of time that elapses between wedding vows and baby bottles is somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 months. Our problem is this: we wed at the infantile age […]
A Baby and His Dog
Q Dear Miss Abigail: My children are separated in age by ten years. I thought it would be a great idea to get my five year old a small dog for a gift. My husband is adamantly opposed to this idea, but he isn’t offering any form of compromise. He says he is allergic, but […]
First Aid to Orderliness
I’ve been making a big mess this week hand-making invitations to my sister’s upcoming baby shower. It’s been quite the project, and the remaining clippings of paper and ribbon are still covering my coffee table. (I don’t know why I don’t just buy invitations!) Perhaps these tips, from Mother’s Own Book, will help me keep a little […]
Naming the Baby
I’m so excited! My sister and her husband are having a baby! The entire family had a lively discussion about names during Thanksgiving dinner. If it’s a boy, he will be named after his papa; the girl’s name is still not finalized. There were as many opinions as people there, but we all know that […]
Toilet Training Trouble
Q Dear Miss Abigail: I’m having trouble toilet training my three-year-old son. Any suggestions? I’ve tried just about everything. He has the urine down, but the other is just an obstacle for some reason. Signed, Exasperated Mom A Dear Mom: I realize some of my readers might be turned off by this week’s question, but […]
The Value of a Child
Happy birthday, baby Perez, happy birthday, baby Perez, happy birthday dear baby Perez… ok, you can come out now. Get it? Birth day? C’mon. We’re ready for you. I’m about to become an aunt, and I’m pretty darn excited, can you tell? I hope I’m up to the task. Even if I’m not, I know this […]