DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My then boyfriend and I eloped in early November, mostly to avoid a big expensive fuss. But both sets of parents now want to have a celebration anyway.... more

‘Tis the day before Christmas and in many a house, there’re yet plenty of pre-holiday fires to douse.... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My dad and mom are very old school. When my three sisters and I were teenagers, our family dentist recommended we all get braces, because of how crowded our mouths were. My th... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: About six years ago a new family moved in next door, and every year their New Year’s Eve party has grown and grown. Last year they started shooting off fireworks at midnight, ... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I honestly cannot remember a time when my mother did not cover the living room furniture. When I was really little, she used old sheets, and as we got older, she started buyin... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My grandpa is one of the greatest guys I’ll ever know. He made it through WWII and has gotten to hold five great-grandbabies.... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My daughter is now 20. She became rebellious in high school and took up with bad friends, one boyfriend in particular (now 19). They smoked pot and probably experimented with ... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I honestly don’t get why my parents, who are vaccinated and boostered and in good health, still won’t travel to see my family and me for the holidays. This is the second year ... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I love my husband immensely. He is a very, very intelligent man with many achievements in many areas of life. He is already an ordained Zen monk, and is now studying to be an ... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My boyfriend and I spend a lot of time talking about how ready we are to take the “next step.” We have been together long enough to know we want to get married, and I know he ... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: When things slowed down because of the pandemic, my wife and I decided it was time to sell our upholstery business and retire. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the price we had ho... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My parents gave up a lot to put me through college and then law school. They did what they could to pay as I went along, so there would be next to no loans to repay, and their... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I know this sounds really weird, but my grandmother has a death photo of her grandmother. In it my dead great-great-grandmother is surrounded by her own children, grandchildre... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My son and daughter-in-law hosted their first big formal dinner party for important business connections. They wanted to impress, and they only have basic daily dishes and nea... more

DEAR READERS: Last year, most of us experienced a holiday season like no other.... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My dad has always been afraid of going to the dentist. He had a really bad experience when he was a kid and the dentist drilled around a deep cavity before fully numbing the a... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: It’s been nearly three months since we moved into our new house. My older son, who is seven, has adjusted perfectly, but my nearly three-year-old still keeps asking when we ar... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I just visited my daughter and her family for the first time since the beginning of last year. She was still on maternity leave at that point, and has since returned to fullti... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: Every time I come home, going back to when I was still in college, my mom gets excited to make me my favorite meals, especially her homemade mac and cheese. It is one of those... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I didn’t tell my parents when I broke up with the girl I had been seeing for nearly two years. It was a friendly breakup, but I knew my parents, especially my mom, really like... more

DEAR READERS: Many of us have close connections to people who’ve been in the military.... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: All or lives, whenever we have an argument, I am always the one who ends up apologizing to my younger sister. I think it comes from when we were kids and my mother always took... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I get on pretty well with my fiancée’s two kids. Her son is 12 and her daughter is 7. They’ve tested me in their own ways, as I would expect, especially after having dated oth... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: When my closest friend was turning 30, a bunch of us who have known her forever decided to celebrate in a big way. She’s been through some tough times with her health, and it ... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I live with my grandparents for now. My dad got transferred to his company’s London office, and when my younger brothers, my mom, and my dad all went over there, I wanted to s... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I have a health freak girlfriend, who is insisting we hand out the veggie chips and vegan snack packs she spent a bundle on to the neighborhood trick or treaters. I bought two... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I married into a family with a construction business. It was by working there that I met my husband, who had come onboard to work with his dad and uncle a year or two earlier.... more

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My boyfriend can be the hardest-working guy I know, but then he drives me crazy, because even though he used to work in construction and knows tons about how to build and fix ... more