Something my little sister told me years ago that I’ve always adhered to - do not tell your family about the stuff your SO does that infuriates you, esp. if it’s the kind of fury that makes you think about breaking up - you may forgive your SO and move on, but your family might not. Ditto about telling your SO about…

Lunch Monster- I feel your pain. I work with guys as well and while I really like them, I rarely go out to lunch with them because they always wind up talking about hockey or the Apple watch or some crap I’m not interested in at all, not even meh, this kinda bores me but I can chat about it. Anyway, if I’m not getting…

I realize that this doesn’t address the true crux of the issue here, but one of my favorite techniques for dealing with interrupters is to just refuse to be interrupted. Like, DO NOT STOP talking. Let them keep trying to talk over you until they are either shouting so loudly everyone else is disturbed or they become…

I’ll bet money that the woman with the cousin she wants to disinvite, would regularly dump toxic loads of complaints about the now fiancee on her “former best friend”. And then broke up with him, no doubt after getting aid and encouragement for aforementioned cousin/friend. Who then had to wonder why the HELL she got…

Since this is one of my first comments ever, I’m sure this will fade away into the grays, but after reading this and the majority of the comments, I didn’t see anyone point out the biggest thing that stood out to me in the first letter.

If you don’t want your relatives to hate your spouse to be, don’t complain to them about his behavior. If all they hear is what a shitheel he is, don’t be surprised at how he is treated. In her mind, she was likely supporting you by taking the side you took when you broke things off. I find it is better to vent to…

Overall, bride seems very immature. She admits that she let her anger at fiancé pile up without telling him, which led to a temporary breakup. She seems to be letting her irritation at the cousin fester as well, and by letting fiancé in on a conversation that happened while they were broken up (which isn’t fair to…

As a tangent, doesn’t a group of 3 invariably result in one person feeling left out? Regardless of the makeup of the group, I try to avoid being in a trio.

The Engaged Monster is still so upset about what her cousin said because she knows deep down that it’s true. I have a friend in a similar situation and while the guy is a nice person, he is completely a leech. He is lazy and irresponsible and lacks ambition and she’s too obsessed with him to accept it. She’s not dumb,…

In my experience, people don’t come up with leech opinions on their own. I am guessing she used to talk a lot of shit about Jack during the bad times/while they broke it off. Now they are back together and in love, but the cousin just heard her talk a bunch of shit (true or not) and is thinking, what’s changed?

Yeahhhh, it is never a good idea to include someone who hates your fiance — and called you up to tell you! — in your wedding party. You’re, like, triple-dog daring them to keep their mouth shut through a lot of celebrating and task mastering. I don’t care what facade she’s putting up now, there’s a better chance than…

Speaking of red flags, am I the only one wondering why she’s working 60 hours a week AND helping him with schoolwork, i.e. doing some of his full time job as well? Can’t a grad student do his own homework?

engaged monster - when you broke up with Jack the first time, did you cry to your cousin about how he was a leech and a terrible person (as we all do when we break up with someone)? if yes, then that is what your cousin is basing her dislike on. she supports you 100%. you should give cuz a break.

Oh, man. That must SUCK. I was an engineer in the early 90s. A group of Japanese dudes from a partner company visited our plant. They straight-up refused to listen when I was presenting, refused to make eye contact, and only spoke to me to demand coffee. This is a thing that actually happened.

And you'll have to call them out more then once, ie. My manslaining husband....

I did this last week with my assistant. “Would you mind...well it doesn’t really matter if you mind cause I’m telling you to do it anyway.” He’s not one to say no to anything I ask him to do, I’m just working on being more assertive anyway. Strangely enough, it’s the older women who work for me who give me more…

I have definitely experienced instances of men interrupting me. But I do have a question for the person seeking your advice: Is this only a work thing, or do you find yourself being interrupted in other aspects of your daily life? Friends, significant other, etc. The reason I ask this is because I have a very good…

The only reason people want you to ask nicely is because it’s easier to ignore.

Oooo, this is going to be fun. I like this idea. And your advice is level headed and you advocate for being the “bigger person” and all sorts of mature and polite.

You think that’s bad? Try working in a Japanese office as a foreign woman. I’m either being sexually harassed in the crudest ways possible, or being completely ignored (“Shut up gaijin, people are talking!”).