ArcaMax

DEAR HARRIETTE: My best friend is throwing a retirement party for her mom. My parents were invited, so I thought it would be OK to ask my friend if I could tag along. She responded by telling me how much it hurt her not to be invited to my mom's retirement party a couple of months back. For context, our families have been super close for nearly ...Read more

DEAR HARRIETTE: A man asked me on a first date to a dive bar. I said no because I already felt like he was trying to see how little effort he could put into planning where we would go. I'm not saying he needed to spend a ton of money on me -- especially for a first date -- but his idea just felt flat-out lazy. In the past, I've been in ...Read more

DEAR HARRIETTE: I carpool with my friend to work. I pick her up every day because she's on the way and doesn't drive. We've been late a few times, and our job has a protocol for lateness. My supervisor doesn't keep close tabs on our team's timestamps, so she hardly realized when I was late. My friend's supervisor, however, happened to notice her...Read more

DEAR READERS: Happy New Year! Can you believe that 2025 has passed us by already? It's hard to grasp, and yet here we are. Take a moment to breathe and reflect on all that occurred in the past year. What did you learn? How did you grow? What do you need to work on moving forward? Be honest with yourself -- and also be kind to yourself.

Now look...Read more

DEAR HARRIETTE: My son rarely calls me or reaches out to me, and it makes me question whether I did something wrong raising him. He is now a sophomore at a college halfway across the country. I was sad to see him go away, but I assumed he would call me first sometimes. I thought wrong; if I want to hear from him, I need to call him. What hurts ...Read more