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Elizabeth Mahoney offers her sage advice on everything from relationships to fashion tips. Write to her at dearlizziepatch@gmail.comDear Lizzie, I know this person who is two-faced, to say the least, and they are part of my circle of friends. This person and I don’t usually get along. We have known each other for years, but there’s always been something between us that keeps us from being closer. I don’t know what the problem is. I could not be friends with her anymore, and it wouldn’t bother me. What’s weird is once she gets some drinks in her, she’s a different person. She talks to me, she connects with me, she pays attention to me. The next day: totally different person. Ignorant, self-centered, rude. She is friends …
Dear Lizzie, I want to get a tattoo, but I’m only 17. A friend of a friend owns a tattoo parlor, and he said he would do it, but only if I have parental permission. I live with my dad and not my mom. My dad is pretty lenient on things, and allows me to make my own choices. I know he hates tattoos, but I know it’s something I want. I won’t regret it. The tattoo I want isn’t gaudy or tacky either. My dad thinks tattoos make people ugly. He probably will be very upset if I do it, but I know he’ll get over it. My tattoo isn’t going to be anywhere that you can see in public. The reason I want to …
Dear Lizzie, I have a close friend that is addicted to drugs, and I don’t know how to help him. He has been smoking weed and snorting coke for about four years now. His family doesn’t know, and he often hides it from them. The thing about it is it has not affected his personal or professional life. He calls himself a “functioning addict.” It’s nothing to joke about, but when I think about it, he may be right. He made it through high school and is succeeding in college part-time right now. His job doesn’t have drug testing, and as far as I know, he hasn’t fouled up at work. My concern is that …
Dear Lizzie, I have a question about when my child is old enough to start group dating and dating alone. I have a daughter that’s 15. She told me how she’s liking boys in her class and how boys like her. She wants to go out to the movies and to the mall with these boys. I don’t know if she wants to date one-on-one yet. When do you think is the right time to let your baby go? I’m sure there is a proper timeline to let them do what they want to do, but how do I ease into it? Scared Single Mom, Lansdale Dear SSM, This is just my advice, but I think 15 is the perfect age for a son or daughter …
Dear Lizzie, I am 40 years old, and I have been married for five years. My wife and I have a beautiful 3-year-old daughter together. Of those five years, three of them have been horrible. I stuck through it for four years, and the last three have been nothing but heartache and misery. I’ve tried to continue and make it work, but I’m at a point where I am so tired and exhausted. The marriage is over. One night, I met a very attractive woman. We went out on a date, but we didn’t do anything. We sat and talked for two hours—nothing physical. My wife found out about it, and I finally came clean, …
Dear Liz … My stepsister refuses to talk to me. It has been about 5 years now since we last spoke. The reason I got for this – not from her, but from other family members – is because I wasn't there for her during the death of her baby in utero. I did email her my condolences and wished I could be there. Around the same time she lost her father and another family member as well. I know she was hurt, but I really didn't know what to say especially where I was with my life. I was in a failing marriage to a man who had told me on several occasions that I was worthless and that I should kill …
Dear Lizzie, I am writing to ask for advice because my mother-in-law is a witch! She meddles in everything, she stops over without calling, and we don’t have kids yet, but she tells us how to raise our children as far as religion and schooling. My wife will not say anything to her mother about how she’s intruding in our life. It should be me and her to discuss what we’re going to do as parents. We should be our own family unit, and we should come first. We are our own family first, and then everyone else is extended family. My mother-in-law acts like top dog, and she comes first beyond …
Hey Lizzie, I have a sticky situation here. I have been dating my girlfriend for over four years. I am 32, she's 29. We have had a great relationship, and in January, I proposed. She said yes, and we have begun to plan our wedding for 2012. A month ago, her ex-boyfriend’s wife contacted me on Facebook. She informed me that my fiancée and her husband had been seeing each other in late January through March of this year. She and her husband were splitting, and she wanted me to know, because she thought it was "the right thing to do." I was really upset by this news. I wanted to calm myself …
Dear Lizzie, I work with a woman, and we have somewhat of a past. We hooked up a couple times outside of work, but we never got serious. I thought we mutually ended the affair. Recently, she has been sexually harassing me at work. It is often very subtle, and no other co-workers know about what happened. Most of the time I am uncomfortable with it all. I have told her to knock it off, but she must think I’m not serious about it. Even outside of work, she continues to do this stuff. The last thing I want to do is file a sexual harassment case and make the whole thing public. What should I do…
Dear Lizzie, I just began high school and am coming to the end of my sophomore year. High school is a whole different world to me than middle school. In middle school, my friends and I would go out with guys and kiss and stuff, but that was about it. But it seems like this year, everything is different. All of my friends are hooking up with upperclassmen boys, especially boys that drive to school and are taking things to a different level. One of my friends gives the senior that drives her to school oral sex almost every day on the way home from school, and they aren't even in a relationship…
Dear Lizzie, I am a 14 year-old female. I think that I might be a lesbian. I don't know if I'm a lesbian or I'm bisexual. I don't even know if this is just a phase that I'm going through. I have liked boys, but I have also liked more girls then boys. I've told a few of my friends that I'm bisexual. They seemed OK about it. What I'm worried about is going into high school and me being the only one who's a lesbian or gay. I don't want to stay in the closet forever. I want to be able to tell my family that I'm gay or that I have a girlfriend. I don't know what to do please help me!! - Worried…
Dear Lizzie, Single mom here. It’s not easy, but I enjoy my life. What I’m not enjoying is the rebellion of my daughter. She is 17 and a junior in high school. All I have is her and my son, who is 5. Her father is never around, and I have to raise her by myself. We try to get along, but it is hard. We go out together and have “Girls Night,” and for a while, it’s great. But it goes back to the same routine. She is good in school, but I don’t know much about her social life. I wish I did. What can I do to make our relationship better? —Worried Mom, Lansdale Dear Worried, Every mother and …
Dear Lizzie, My husband and I have been married for 10 years, and we have a 3-year-old son. We are getting a divorce after months of counseling and remediation. This is what we have decided to do, as it is the best thing for us. We are scared, however, that it may not be the best thing for our son. We are struggling with finding a way that the divorce will not affect our relationship with him. He is too young to understand, and we don’t want our decision to affect him in the future. What do you suggest? – Breaking Up and Broken Down, Hatboro Dear Breaking Up, A decision is never bulletproof, …
Dear Lizzie, I am 29 and I live by myself in an apartment building. There’s a married woman that frequents the bar I go to often. We flirt whenever we are out. She doesn’t live in the area; she has a girlfriend that does live around my area, and they have a “Girls Night Out.” That is how we met. This woman has a young daughter, and her husband works during the day. She is gorgeous, and I love being around her. I don’t think her husband has any idea of our flirtations, but she told me she would cheat on her husband. This is very tempting. What do you think? – Lucky Man, Upper Dublin Dear Lucky…
Dear Lizzie, I am a 50-year-old man with three children and two grandchildren. I also have two brothers and a sister—well, technically one brother and a sister. The sentence is phrased that way because I haven’t spoken to one of my brothers in over 20 years. We had a falling out over the way we chose to lead one another’s lives. I didn’t approve of his lifestyle, and he didn’t care for what I had to say. I often converse and visit with his children, but every time I do, he is not in the picture. As I get older, I don’t want to have any regrets. I think I need to try to mend things with him …
Dear Lizzie, I recently had a fight with my parents, and it has to do with Facebook. I am 28 years old, and I live on my own. Last week, I went out with a group of friends to celebrate a new job. A lot of pictures were taken that night. There was nothing inappropriate, but sometimes you can get a little wacky when you’re with friends and having a good time. My parents are friends with me on Facebook, and they saw the pictures posted from that evening. They proceeded to berate me, insult me, and make me feel so bad and sick to my stomach. I’m an adult, and I shouldn’t be treated this way. …
Dear Lizzie, My husband and I have been married for five years, and we thought we had figured out where we stand on having children. I am nine years younger than my husband, and we recently brought up the discussion about having children. At 32 years old, I don’t want to have kids at this point in my life. He, however, really wants us to have a baby. I don’t feel ready, and we have argued about this recently, but every time I am adamant about what I want as far as children. What do you think we should do? - Baby Talk, Fort Washington Dear Baby Talk, You really should have discussed this in-…
Got a question for “Dear Lizzie …”? Write dearlizziepatch@gmail.com. Dear Lizzie … My boyfriend has a college friend who continually asks him to help him out when it comes to this college buddy passing his work drug test. My boyfriend has to pee for him. (I don’t know the specifics on how this is done). I know this cannot be legal. I want to tell my boyfriend, as nice of a guy that he is, that I do NOT think he should be doing this for his “friend.” Your thoughts? Are there any potential legal issues my boyfriend could face? - PEE O’D, Lansdale Dear P.O’D … My first bit of advice is to tell …
Dear Lizzie, I have been dating and living with a man for several years now. In the beginning he was sweet, charming and fun to be around. Lately, things have been different. He hardly works, and when he does, he complains about how much he hates going (or he works less than full time). He never helps out around the house, and he makes me do all the cooking, cleaning and laundry. I have asked him to help out, but it is shortlived. (I'm actually not to sure what he does all day while I'm at work.) I have tried not doing it to see if he would eventually do it, but the house ended up filthy, and…
Got a question for Lizzie? E-mail dearlizziepatch@gmail.com. Dear Lizzie, Everyone says we are coming out of a recession, but tell that to my sister and family. My sister recently lost her job, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time for her. She is also facing a divorce, but luckily there will be no custody battle with her kids. However, with the job and divorce, she has leaned on me to help her out. Lizzie, she wants to move into my house along with her two kids. I’m not sure if it is a good idea, and I don’t want her to take advantage of the situation. Yet, she is family. What do I do…
