Dear Abby

The first Dear Abby is about a mother who confides in her son, tells the son not to tell anybody including his wife, and is not happy when the son not only tells the wife, but the wife tells people too.

The second Dear Abby has to do with a couple where the wife is paying far more attention to the cat than to the husband.

And how come my newspaper didn't even print the third one? :D

Read all about it here:

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucda/20100902/lf_ucda/sonsnosecretspolicyirkshisconfidingmother;_ylt=Av4RW110CgDyxd9yoZOB1XnNbbUC;_ylu=X3oDMTNoMWVic3BxBGFzc2V0A3VjZGEvMjAxMDA5MDIvc29uc25vc2VjcmV0c3BvbGljeWlya3NoaXNjb25maWRpbmdtb3RoZXIEcG9zAzEEc2VjA3luX3BhZ2luYXRlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDc29uc25vc2VjcmV0)

I think in the first case, the mom should not be asking the son to keep things from the wife, and the son should straight out tell his mom that he's not going to do that. He should also have a word with the wife about her blabbing, and tell her he's not going to confide in her if she can't zip her lip.

In the second case, I think what the counselor said was very interesting.

People turn to excessive engagement with animals because animals provide warmth in easy, reliable ways.

and what Dear Abby said:

when a spouse (of either sex, by the way) feels ignored, unappreciated, unloved or unimportant, it is not uncommon for him or her to seek validation elsewhere

Sounds actually a lot like my marriage early on, and I wish I had known enough at the time to see the signs. I suspect the husband and the wife were not meeting each other's needs in some way, but it does sound more like the wife turned away from the husband. They need to figure out what the problem is before it's too late.

Opinions?