Residing in an assisted living center is what scares me.

Dear Annie: There is a family in our congregation, “Fred” and “Wilma,” who have two kids who are the same age as ours. My wife is friends with Wilma, and the kids all get along well. The problem is Fred. He’s a fat jerk.

Dear Annie: Having been a registered nurse for the past 40 years, I have seen many changes in health care. I believe that nursing is a calling and not just a career. In my initial, youthful bliss, I took great joy in helping people in their hour of need. Patients and families were grateful and appreciative for every little thing that was done for them.

Many of my friends love to get out on the dance floor and dance the night away. I’ve never enjoyed dancing...

Dear Annie: My sister and her husband are both in their mid-80s and live on a farm.

Dear Annie: I’ve had a HUGE sweet tooth all my life. I have also always been very active, and I eat healthy foods. However, I’m nervous that this is not enough to balance my intake of sugary goodies.

Dear Annie: I have worked in the same office for 18 years. For many years, there were five of us in our division: three women and two men. One of the men left for a different job a year ago, and he was replaced by a woman, “Carla,” who is very difficult to work with. In fact, I’m convinced that she is a liar and a troublemaker.

Dear Annie: I consider myself to be a self-aware social media poster. However, there is a family member on Facebook who posts her child care needs at least once a week. She posts the day and time she needs and has said the names of the children who need a sitter. She has three children.

Dear Annie: Finding topics of conversation can often be difficult during long visits. Since “Grinding My Teeth” feels that this may be the last time she and her husband will visit with these in-laws, why not take this opportunity to encourage these people to talk about their lives?

Dear Annie: My husband of 42 years discovered a new way of breathing, and it has made me scared to death. I am afraid that he might die in his sleep.

Dear Annie: My wife left me a little over a year ago.

Dear Annie: I am looking for some help in dealing with my alcoholic, grossly overweight brother-in-law.

Dear Annie: Recently, my girlfriend had a dinner party for six people. One of the guests took it upon herself to bring her dog to the affair. I was livid.

Dear Annie: I cannot tell you how elated I was to read the letter from “Eating and Satisfied.”

Dear Annie: My sister started smoking cigarettes when she was 18 and still smokes today at 48. She has quit several times over the years, but then she goes back to smoking again and again. Her husband and children want her to quit, and my older brother goes ballistic on the subject -- yelling and screaming at her when she goes outside to light up.

My boyfriend, “Joseph,” grew up in a lower-income household in what we would now call a “food desert.”

Dear Annie: I had to respond to the letter, “Sleepless in Los Angeles,” about the 6-year-old who insisted that her parents sleep with her. My husband and I had a similar problem. I was a nurse and worked on the swing shift, which meant I did not get home till 11:30 at night. Dad had to feed our four kids and see that they had their baths and got to bed.

Dear Annie: My stepfather loves to volunteer for community work.

Dear Annie: My mother has been a bad drug addict for most of my life.

Dear Annie: I graduate from college in December (hopefully), and before then I have some important decisions to make about my future.

Dear Annie: My boss considers me a friend.

Dear Annie: I’m about to be a sophomore in college, and I am on summer break. I have not really talked to any of my friends from college since we have all been busy with internships and traveling.

Dear Annie: I’m a 30-year-old male in my first year of marriage to a charming, beautiful woman, “Sonny.” I am madly in love with this woman, and she says the same to me. This is a second marriage for both of us. Unfortunately, I’m finding out that she has lied to me about a number of things, and my love for her is being weakened by these revelations.

Dear Annie: I’m often frustrated when people say that family always comes first.

Dear Annie: After more than 40 years addicted to meth, and being an alcoholic, I have been clean and sober for two years now and I am nothing like the old me.

Dear Annie: I have a 40-year-old son who seems to think I am his personal piggy bank.

Dear Annie: I am 68 years of age and actually very lonely. Most of my friends have either moved on or passed away. I don’t make close friends very often because I don’t trust too many people. I guess I expect a lot.

Dear Annie: I’m heading to college next year and am scared of making new friends.

Dear Annie: Your recent letter from, “Grieving My Childhood,” reminded me of a very old German song, written by a renowned clergyman, that begins with the line, “Der Mond ist aufgegangen.”

Dear Annie: We have a son and daughter-in-law who live in Wisconsin, while we live more than 1,200 miles away in Florida.

Dear Annie: I want to change my career path to pursue what I really want to do in life. I have two kids, a 2-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter.

Dear Annie: My family moved from Shanghai four years ago and have settled in a lovely home in California.

Dear Annie: I have been with my boyfriend for six years.

Dear Annie: Several years ago, after my late husband passed away, I reconnected with an old friend whom I’d dated in high school.

Dear Annie: I met a great gal. We seem really good together most of the time, but here’s the rub. She has a dog.

Dear Annie: I have a problem I’ve been struggling with for quite some time. I am in my late 40s and have been married for over half my life. For the past five years or so, I have been dealing with the idea that I may be gay. I have always kind of felt that I could be, but I went the traditional route and married a man.

Dear Annie: Recently, I stayed with my niece and nephew while my brother and his wife took a trip. This seems like a trivial problem, but I know it can lead to serious health issues in the long run. Neither of my brother’s teenaged kids brushed their teeth regularly.

Dear Annie: I have a problem that many other mothers-in-law may have, but mine has a twist.

Dear Annie: Recently, I was contacted by a person who had just received results from a popular online DNA test, which I had also taken some time ago.

Dear Annie: Frequently, we read letters from your readers who are mystified about the fact that when they send a card or a package carefully wrapped and mailed, the recipient does not even think about the fact that love played a major role in this.

Dear Annie: I am part of a cooking club that meets the second Tuesday of each month. Each member buys food and we cook a recipe chosen by the host. There are 15 members. Each has to host once every 15 months. We are all females in our 50s or 60s.

Dear Annie: The problem is not with our son, but his wife.

Dear Annie: I live out in the country and have found a consistently wonderful kennel for my dog.

Dear Annie: Recently, I got married after being single and a widow for 23 years. My husband and I are in our late 70s and very active. We went on a tour to the Midwest. There was a very attractive 70-plus woman with whom I noticed my husband flirting, and she with him. I mentioned that I did not appreciate the attention he was throwing her way, and he assured me it was all in fun.

Dear Annie: We are grandparents who have adopted our twin 9-year-old grandchildren, a boy and a girl. They have lived with us permanently since they were 2 years old. They have separate bedrooms upstairs but have always slept together.

Dear Annie: My wife and I are approaching 50 years of marriage.

Dear Annie: My boyfriend and I are coming up on our sixth anniversary.

Dear Annie: I live in a large apartment building in a very safe part of town. It’s an older building, and all of the mail for the complex is in one room. Large packages are placed by the mailbox in that room rather than brought up the four flights of stairs.

Dear Annie: My friend has been dating the same guy for about a year, and I have always gotten along with him just fine.

Dear Annie: I’m getting sick of my living situation. After college, I moved in with a very close family friend. He has an awesome house right by the beach and was kind enough to offer me his spare bedroom for very cheap rent while I’m still looking for a full-time job.

Dear Annie: I’m a grandmother to five children. My son Brian and his wife, Amanda, have a 3-year-old and a 6-month-old together.

Dear Annie: I had a falling out with my elder brother. It happened when the whole family had gotten together for Thanksgiving dinner.

Dear Annie: My wife is nuts.

Dear Annie: I’m writing because I hope the person this will help most will read it.

Dear Annie: I am a divorced male in my early 50s.

Dear Annie: I have a friend who has experienced a difficult life, including abuse, cancer and loss.

Dear Annie: I’m a 70-year-old man happy to still be working and productive. I work with a great crew of seven other people, but I don’t know how to handle this particular situation.

Dear Annie: My son is 7 years old and is attending a soccer camp this summer. He is an average player and loves the game, and he has made friends at the camp. The problem is that one of the boys is a bully, and he targets my son all the time, calling him “a bad player” and kicking the soccer ball right in his face.

Dear Annie: I work in a big city. After work, I enjoy going to the local bar. I’ve been doing this for three years, and everything was fine -- with occasional problems -- until the past few months. Now it is what I seem to be living for.

Dear Annie: I finally realized that I cannot change people or their behaviors. I can only change mine. Now, how I react? I am working on that.

Dear Annie: I have been dating my boyfriend for two years now.

Dear Annie: I am writing because I’m seeking your help about my relationship with my 30-year-old granddaughter, “Nadia.”

Dear Annie: My husband constantly lies by omission of details of what he has done.

Dear Annie: I’m freshly moved out of my parents’ house.

Dear Annie: I am a grandmother who is seeking your advice about my married granddaughter. Her father is my son. Her parents divorced when the children were quite small. My son was awarded custody of my granddaughter and her brother. We did our best to provide help to our son and the children. The mother has a drug addiction. We provided monetarily, we babysat, took them food and did other similar things to help out.

Dear Annie: My husband and I are very close. We have been married for 27 years and agree on most things and share many common interests. There is only one issue where we differ, and I’d like to hear suggestions for how I can help him to change, so he will join me in my daily walks.

Dear Annie: My mother very sadly passed away in January from cancer.

Dear Annie: My older brother is disabled. He was quite functional after he first had a stroke, but did not take care of himself.

Dear Annie: I will be moving soon — several states away — and I’m torn about the state of my relationship. I’ve been with my significant other for five years. That’s not something I can easily let go of. But we have been growing apart for some time now, and we’ve discussed that we both feel we’ll break up eventually.

Dear Annie: Am I the only one who feels that life is too complicated these days and that I feel absolutely powerless when it comes to calling a big company to get service? I am old enough to remember the days when we bought a television, put it in the car, drove home, plugged it in, played with the “rabbit ears” for a minute and then were able to watch TV.

Dear Annie: I’m getting married in a few months, and I’m paying for everything myself.

Dear Annie: I will turn 65 this year and can’t help but look back on my life. For the most part, until recently at least, I was feeling very satisfied. I was married right out of college, at 22, to the wrong person, and we split up after 10 months. She has since been married four times. But I found the ideal person for me, and we were married when I turned 30 and have been together — happily — ever since.

Dear Annie: I have discovered something that your readers might find helpful, and if you agree, I hope that you will print my letter. For the past 20 years, I have wanted to lose the same 10 pounds. In fact, I have lost them dozens of times and then regained them after going off whatever diet I tried. And I have tried them all!

Dear Annie: My husband and I have been married for 1½ years, though we started going out more than three years ago.

Dear Annie: I find that I have a real problem with aging. When a flight attendant nicely says, “This way, young lady,” I want to punch him.

I just read the letter from “Missing My Son” and felt compelled to write a response. I, too, was in a bad marriage for 17 years. ...

Dear Annie: This is to the woman whose 81-year-old mother was about to be scammed out of $10,000. I would suggest that you get your mother’s bank involved.

Dear Annie: My in-laws who live across the country have basically tricked us into agreeing to host them for almost a month.

Dear Annie: I’ve been going through a lot lately, and it’s taken an emotional toll. Among other things, I’m in love with someone I can’t have.

Dear Annie: I have a message I hope you will please share. The last several years have seen numerous natural disasters. The human toll has been great, but there are thousands of other victims that have no voice. Pets, especially cats, are left behind. I encourage all pet owners to have a disaster plan for their pets.

Dear Annie: I have some co-workers who irritate me.

Dear Annie: I have a friend who I have known for many years, and suddenly I have noticed that she is getting possessive with me.

Dear Annie: I used to drink coffee only now and then, just for enjoyment. But since my job has become more intense and stressful, I’ve found myself needing at least a cup a day to keep me alert and functioning at full capacity.

Dear Readers: A recent column talked about someone being grossed out when entering a bathroom stall because the previous occupant failed to flush.

Dear Annie: I endured a very traumatic childhood. I was verbally abused. I was physically abused. I was sexually abused and raped.

My grandfather was violently abusive to his wife, and then his daughter (my mother), and then to me. He was also very racist — he punished me for having a black friend in grade school — and just generally cruel.

Dear Annie: As much as I hate to admit it, I think about divorce practically every day. Divorce, however, isn’t something I want.

Dear Annie: I hope this is not out of your area, but I have a parking-related question for you.

Dear Annie: A few years ago, I joined a duplicate bridge group in town and got paired with an older man who had just broken up with his partner.

Dear Annie: I wanted to send you my observation about your advice and columns: You are outstanding! Your replies are heartfelt, and I feel your compassion.

Dear Annie: I need to vent here. I have a group of girlfriends, and there is one, “Melanie,” who dominates the conversation.

Dear Annie: I’m sitting at Reagan National Airport close to dinnertime.

My son has prosopagnosia, which is a neurological condition characterized by the inability to recognize the faces of familiar people.

Dear Readers: Fathers and father figures deserve more than one day of recognition for all their work and love, and the amount of beautiful words send in reflected this. Below are a few more moving tributes submitted for Father’s Day.

Dear Readers: Below are just a few of the very touching and beautiful tributes you submitted for Fathers Day. It was so nice to read about all of the love, gratitude and humor you expressed about your fathers. Happy Father's Day.

Dear Annie: I have known one of my friends, “Pam,” for more than 50 years, and at times she has been a very good friend.

Dear Annie: I lived with my husband for 50 years. We met spontaneously, and I moved in with him soon afterward.

Dear Annie: My daughter was 14 weeks pregnant when the baby died.

Dear Annie: My 81-year-old mom and I live together.

Dear Annie: My wife and I have three perfect grandchildren, ages 1, 5 and 7. We love watching them at least one day a week.

Dear Annie: When did airplane seats become so small? I hadn’t flown in six years until this past spring, when I booked a flight to attend a family wedding. I reserved a window seat so that I could relax in comfort. But the experience was anything but comfortable.

My youngest is set to move out of the family home in the next month or two.

Dear Annie: My office mates and I enjoy a good prank as a way of keeping things light.

Dear Annie: Growing up, my siblings and I would make fun of my mom’s snoring all the time. To be fair, the noise seemingly could wake the dead; she sounded like she was sawing logs every night. Her snoring became one of our favorite family jokes, and to this day it’s brought up on a pretty regular basis.

Dear Annie: I’m a mother to five beautiful children.

Dear Annie: I lived in a bad marriage for more than 25 years.

Dear Annie: I want to take a cross-country road trip — just me, myself and the highway.

Dear Readers: Though I do my best to keep my personal life out of this column, I’m writing today about something that has deeply impacted me. A person very close to me was recently diagnosed with stage IV esophageal cancer.

I was overwhelmed by the love and empathy that many of you expressed for “Just Existing,” the man who was hoping to fade away from life.

My husband and I bought a house in a safe neighborhood 12 years ago primarily because it has a great school district. We have two children, a boy and a girl, and I am writing about our oldest child...

Dear Annie: Our daughter, “Jenny,” is graduating from college in a few weeks, and my husband and I are very proud. We were unable to afford college, but once we had a child, we knew how important it was for her to go. My husband has worked in a factory his whole life and two years ago became a supervisor.

Dear Annie: I was brought up to say, “Excuse me,” when someone was in the way and I needed to pass. I have noticed when I say this to younger people they reply, “Oh, you’re fine,” and don’t move.

My boyfriend and I have been dating for almost five years now. He says that he wants to get married soon; however, he is almost 30 and we still don’t live together.

Dear Annie: I am a waiter in a restaurant and enjoy my job. I am 34 years old and struggled to find work that I like before I found this job. I really love being a waiter. The customers are mostly friendly, the food is good, and I try to make eating at our restaurant an enjoyable experience for all diners.

Dear Annie: I have three grandchildren from my stepdaughter who live in another city. Their mom has said that she plans to come and visit with the kids this summer. One of the children has a lot of mental health issues.

Dear Annie: Our dear grandson is 5. He’s bright, energetic, kind and wonderful.

Dear Annie: Over the summer, my sister was raped. She chose not to report it.

Dear Readers: We were overwhelmed with letters about the college admissions scandal, and this is a continuation of yesterday’s column, filled with questions, criticism and praise from my many talented and brilliant readers.

Dear Readers: Many of you have strong opinions about the college admissions scandal, and because there were so many thoughtful replies, I am devoting a few columns to reprinting some of the feedback to my proposed solution of fining the parents to pay for scholarships:

Dear Annie. I have a 6-year-old daughter who won’t go to sleep on her own. She has an innate fear of staying alone in her room.

Dear Annie: I have chronic back pain thanks to sciatica. I chose to treat it with physical therapy and exercise, and I take muscle relaxers and or anti-inflammatory drugs when the pain really flares up.

Dear Annie: My husband and I moved to another state following our retirements a few years ago. We moved to a resort town six hours away from my brother “Billy” and his wife, “Patty.”

Dear Annie: I’m having a hard time trying to keep in touch with my boarding school friends.

Dear Annie: I am in my 80s and recently lost my beloved sister-in-law, who was 90.

Dear Annie: I’ve been in this relationship for five years now, and my boyfriend, “Steve,” still puts his adult daughter, “June,” before me.

Dear Annie: I’ve been with my significant other for five years.

Dear Annie: My husband and I have very different television interests.

I’ve been working as professional for more than 10 years, and I’m arriving at the point in my career where I’m now responsible for spending more time meeting with clients.

We plan on having our daughter write out a thank-you card to those who give her a gift and help celebrate her big day.

Dear Annie: Over the years, I’ve read a number of beautiful Mother’s Day poems and notes in Ann Landers’ column.

Dear Annie: I am an older gay man. The bullying started when I was young.

Dear Annie: I’m caught in a cycle of being too busy, tired and stressed out to ask my family for help with household chores.

Dear Annie: I am in a relationship with a 71-year-old woman.

Dear Annie: Your recent column signed by “Blamed for Bedlam” struck a chord with me, and I’d like to share my story.

Dear Annie: I’ve been married for 32 years, but my wife and I have never made a great pair.

Dear Annie: Recently, I met “Todd” through a friend of a friend. I went back to school to study graphic design a couple years ago and will be graduating this fall.

Dear Annie: I’ve been working at the same company for the last 10 years.

Dear Annie: I just turned 39 and am freaking out about my next birthday, when I will go from being a young person to a middle-aged person.

We raised our children in church, and then lost our religion. There were so many reasons for that, but there’s no going back to any church in the future.

Dear Annie: My boyfriend and I have been together for seven years.

Dear Annie: I had my 14th birthday two weeks before I gave birth to my son. The hardest thing I have ever done was to sign the paper for him to be adopted.

Dear Annie: My friend Jess and I recently moved into a three-bedroom apartment together.

Dear Annie: My boyfriend’s mother was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It’s been really hard on him and his family. I’ve been trying to be there for him as best I can, but it seems like I’m always saying the wrong thing.

Why do some people stand in your way — in restaurant waiting areas, on sidewalks, etc. — and refuse to move? When they’re blocking you, what is the correct way to get past them?

My wife and I have a perpetual disagreement with each other about cleaning. I tend to be neat and organized. My wife tends to be messy and disorganized....

I am in my 70s, have been married for 42 years and have three grown children. I found out two years ago that I had a child with a woman I had dated 10 years before I met my wife.

Dear Annie: Every summer for the past 15 years, my mother has insisted on driving 1,500 miles to spend 10 days with me. We have had some really fun visits, but now she is 88 years old and just had heart surgery. She frequently falls despite using a walker.

I’m in a really bittersweet situation. I hit it off with a friend who happens to live quite far away....

Dear Annie: My co-worker, “Jane,” is the front-desk person and has a bird’s-eye view to everything.

Dear Annie: I am hoping you can help me sort this out. I am an avid animal lover, and I have had animals all my life. I am now on the brink of turning 65 and have no pets.

My problem is that my friends are highly critical of everything I try on, but not of each other.

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day always present a dilemma for my family, and I was hoping you and your readers could offer some advice.

My three siblings and I are in a terrible situation right now over our 88-year-old mother.

My husband has a friend, “Ralph,” who is half his age and was recently married. Ralph’s wife, “Katherine,” is always texting my husband, and not me, to make plans to go out to eat.

Dear Annie: My best friend and I agree on almost everything, but something has come up that has caused us to argue, and we decided to turn to you for advice. We both have children who are in their first year of high school, and when they graduate they want to go to college.

Dear Annie: I am feeling so conflicted. My niece, “Melanie,” is getting married in June.

Dear Annie: My oldest sister has five grown children. Four live out of town, and one lives with his mother. My sister has never been able to stand up for herself very well.

Dear Annie: I am trying to decide if I should print out the following letter and give it to my wife. What do you think?

Dear Annie: For the past four years, I have taken a yoga class at our local senior center.

Dear Annie: Usually active and energetic, I will be turning 80 in the spring. How I dread that birthday! Once my favorite season, spring now haunts me.

Dear Annie: I enjoy my job, but I’m not satisfied.

Dear Annie: My family is dealing with an aging mother.

It has become quite obvious that our kids’ generation is totally consumed with a certain famous coffee brand. I like to refer to it as “Fancypants Coffee.”

Dear Annie: I recently went no-contact with my father. We had a tumultuous relationship when I was growing up because of his struggle with mental illness.

Dear Annie: I’ve noticed that these days, people say “I love you” almost as a way of saying goodbye to friends or “see you later.”

Dear Annie: I’ve been suffering from various symptoms of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder since I was about 11 years old.

How do you politely handle “the talkers”? There seem to be a lot of them out there.

Dear Annie: Our 28-year-old grandson is marrying his college girlfriend, whom we have known for over seven years.

Dear Annie: My employer is conducting a weight-loss incentive program for the month of April. Whoever loses the most weight gets a $250 gift card.

Dear Annie: I care for my brother-in-law, “Steve,” but both he and his wife, “Tracy,” are a tad egotistical -- your classic know-it-all types, the kind of people most can handle only in small doses.

Dear Annie: I love learning languages. I grew up with immigrant parents who spoke their native language to me, and I studied another language in high school. I’m also a native English speaker. I wouldn’t say I’m trilingual, but I can get by in those two languages I’ve learned aside from English.

I have a 75-year-old uncle who recently retired.

Dear Annie: My husband and I own a second home. Our daughter, her boyfriend and their two small children live in that house and pay us rent.

Dear Annie: My daughter and daughter-in-law had a close relationship and worked together for a social networking business.

Dear Annie: We often invite my brother-in-law to share dinner with us. He lives alone across the street and seems to enjoy the food when he comes over.

Dear Annie: I am a woman in my late 30s marrying the woman of my dreams this fall.

Dear Annie: I’m a happily married almost-70-year-old woman who has been sorting and purging the contents of boxes in my attic in preparation for downsizing.

Dear Annie: As long as I can remember, my parents have controlled the majority of my actions.

She tells me that I help, but I feel lost because even though she’s been sober for months, her anger is still the same.

I received a great deal of helpful feedback for “Heartbroken on Valentine’s Day.” Thank you to everyone who wrote in.

My question is about the fact that they never bring anything, such as a bottle of wine, and they have never invited us out to dinner or to have dinner at their home.

I read your response to “Loving Mother,” whose children bought her gift cards to clothing stores rather than generic, credit card-type gift cards.

Dear Readers: Spring is a beautiful season full of new beginnings. The hibernating animals come out of their slumber to play.

I am an officer in an old but still active community cemetery with graves dating back to at least the 1800s and with plenty of available space.

Dear Annie: My sister “Katy” is 10 years older than I and has never married or had children. She was a devoted and loving auntie to my kids when they were young, but they have grown up and don’t hang with her much anymore.

Dear Annie: You always give thoughtful advice, and I would appreciate your opinion. My husband of 20 years, “Earl,” can be friendly when he wants to be.

Dear Annie: I work in the summer at an art college, with a program for high schoolers who want to take classes for college credit.

Dear Annie: I have four cousins, whom I love a lot. There’s “Piper,” the eldest at 10, with whom I connect on a social and BFF level.

Dear Annie: Is it considered old-fashioned to send an actual thank-you note by mail these days?

Dear Annie: My husband and I have been married for 48 years. We have endured really expensive medical issues over the past several years, and our funds are stretched to the limit.

At my job, I’m the newbie on the team. The others I work with seem to know one another well, and they chat and make jokes in the office all the time.

Dear Annie: Lately, I’ve been reading that people aren’t getting enough vitamin D.

Dear Annie: I work in the service department office at a car dealership.

Dear Annie: My new rescue dog is rather skittish.

Dear Annie: I am a member of a small Midwestern church and in the choir.

Dear Annie: I’m in my 20s, and I just recently had a facial for the first time.

Dear Annie: I saw the advice about tipping a hairdresser and the shampoo person.

Dear Annie: I like doing kind things for people. It makes me feel good.

Dear Annie: Recently, my father-in-law retired. This has made my mother-in-law a different, not-so-kind person. She has always confided in me her worries about many different subjects, and I have always been honest but considerate of her very touchy emotions.

Dear Annie: I was recently on a cross-country flight, and the person in front of me reclined her seat all the way for the entire flight.

Dear Annie: My companion and I recently went to a very popular play that had no intermission. We were sitting in the first row of the balcony seats, and there was a short wooden wall in front of us to keep things from falling over the edge. But the result was that there was no room to move my feet and legs.

Dear Annie: I pride myself on being an empathetic person. I’m known in my friend group and family as a person who “has it together” and is a comforting shoulder to lean on.

Dear Annie: Our beautiful 44-year-old daughter is making plans to be married for the third time.

Dear Annie: I just adopted a dog who’s quite overweight. Right now, he’s about 24 pounds, and the vet wants him to be about 17 to 18 pounds.

Dear Annie: I enjoy my job, but my boss is a bit hit-or-miss. Sometimes he’s very friendly with me, whereas other times, he’s blunt and unforgiving.

Dear Annie: “Jeremy” and I have known each other for a few years and hung out as friends in group settings. Last year, he moved to my neighborhood, and we started occasionally grabbing a drink after work or carpooling to mutual friends’ things together.

Dear Annie: I'm wondering whether you could weigh in on a disagreement my wife and I have.

Dear Annie: For the past few years at our summer holiday party, a family friend has taken to inviting his own guests without my knowledge.

Dear Readers: The letter from a woman who is thinking about walking out on her 40-year marriage struck a chord, and many of you thought my suggestion of marriage counseling was the wrong advice, even though I said that if the counseling proved fruitless, she would know what to do.

Dear Annie: I have a friend, “Sarah,” who openly admits to having obsessive-compulsive disorder but isn’t receiving any kind of treatment for it.

Dear Annie: My husband and I both have adult kids from our prior lives.

Dear Annie: I’m a freshman in high school, and I’m starting to make friends. I’m always trying to be silly with them. I guess I enjoy the validation when they laugh. But I don’t want to be seen as too crazy or immature.

My 25-year-old son, “Andy,” has been dating “Cassie” for a year and a half.

Dear Annie: I know that I am very lucky to have a pair of active in-laws who love their children and grandchildren.

Dear Annie: With Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day coming soon, I would like to make a suggestion to children who send gift cards to their mothers or fathers.

Dear Annie: Can hoarding be cured? If not, I’ve reached the end of my rope.

Dear Annie: Each Valentine’s Day, I am filled with incredible sadness. Two years ago, my husband and I were expecting our first baby girl.

Dear Annie: I’m hoping to adopt a small dog soon, and obviously, my apartment needs to be prepared.

Dear Annie: I have been married for 25 years. My husband grew up in a foreign country and has been drinking alcohol his whole life. He drinks beer the way I drink water.

Dear Annie: I’ve been seeing this woman for about a month.

Dear Annie: I am a 25-year-old woman with an embarrassing problem: I blush easily — like, really easily.

Dear Annie: My husband and I had a wonderful relationship, and he was a great man.

Dear Annie: I’m a 74-year-old single man who has never been in circulation.

Dear Annie: I moved four months ago, and there are still boxes and bags waiting to be unpacked.

Dear Annie: I’m writing to you about something that I’m not sure is a problem.

Dear Annie: I am extremely disappointed and saddened by your advice to “Sad in Wisconsin,” whose son’s family does not acknowledge the gifts “Sad in Wisconsin” gives.

Dear Annie: The subject of intimacy involves almost everyone, especially couples, so I’m writing to you not necessarily for advice but in hopes of finding out whether other women relate at all to my observations and suggestions about intimacy.

Dear Annie: At what point does a child quit trying to have a relationship with her mother? Is it natural for a mother to have to call her firstborn every single time before she calls another child?

Dear Annie: I have been married to the same man for almost 40 years. We have two beautiful children, who have happy lives and their own careers and families.

Dear Annie: A few months back, I mentioned to my husband that I wish the style of men in suits and hats would come back.

Dear Annie: Have things changed since I was dating, which was a long time ago? Does the male still pick up the check, or is the female also paying sometimes?

Dear Annie: I just received an invitation to a wedding that I’ve been told will be lavish.

Dear Annie: My husband of two years was divorced from his ex six years ago. They had no children.

Would you please remind people to call and ask before they donate items to charity, animal shelters, nursing homes and thrift stores?

Dear Annie: I am 75 and in a great relationship with a wonderful man of 83. He is a widower after 57 years of marriage.

Dear Annie: We live in Florida, and my sister and brother-in-law are coming today. They will be here for six months and are expecting us to pick them up from the airport later.

Dear Annie: There is an issue that has been going on for quite some time now, and I don’t know what to do.

Dear Annie: My boyfriend, “Mark,” can be a sore loser, and it’s beginning to ruin game night.

Recently, you published a letter from someone whose good friend was being abused by a girlfriend physically, verbally and financially.

In the past month or so, I’ve noticed that I get headaches when I skip coffee for a day.

Dear Annie: Here I am, 78 years old, heading into another New Year’s resolution. I’m hoping you will let me share my sentiments with your readers.

Dear Annie: I have struggled with weight my entire life. I have been on every diet imaginable.

Dear Annie: The other day, my teenage daughter came to me because her good friend is being bullied on social media.

Dear Annie: I have gotten to the point that I no longer like to go out to eat, especially if it is a restaurant that my wife and I have not gone to before. Here’s why.

Dear Annie: I want people to know that depression can happen to someone even if her life appears wonderful.

Dear Annie: Christmas used to be a time that I enjoyed. I have always enjoyed spending time with siblings and cousins who live in other cities and catching up with them.

I am a soon-to-be divorced man who has suffered a great deal of pain after the collapse of my lengthy marriage.

Dear Annie: I recently went on vacation with my mom, stepdad and siblings. We went to the river where my stepdad has been going for about 30 years.

Dear Annie: My husband, “Bob,” and I have been married for over 30 years.

Dear Annie: I am writing to ask your opinion about the change in my sister’s behavior toward me. I have two sisters, and the one I am speaking of is my elder sister, “Ruth.”

Dear Annie: My brother-in-law “Albert” wants to loudly dominate any conversation by either talking about his life or showing his “great” knowledge and opinions on other subjects.

Dear Annie: I’ve played basketball with an informal team of women for well over 10 years.

Dear Annie: Without trying to sound arrogant, I am smarter than the average bear. Not quite a genius but certainly up there.

Dear Annie: I am a published author and have been struggling to write my next book. I’ve written a handful of adult-oriented fictional books. My most recent published book came out almost five years ago.

ecently, a friend confronted me about something that I didn’t think was a big deal: Sometimes I forget to respond to texts for a while, and then I reply and say that I just saw the message.

Dear Annie: When I was 10, I began asking for a phone. Every kid in my class had one, and I was being left out and bullied because I was the only kid without one.

Dear Annie: I used to write every day — mostly poems but also essays.

Dear Annie: My twin sister and brother-in-law visited me for the recent holiday. I love my sister, and we have always gotten along well.

Dear Annie: Politics took over as the main topic at our holiday dinner.

Dear Annie: I love most dogs and have had pets all my life, but there are times and places in which pets should not accompany their owners.

Dear Annie: I have a good friend who has been like a kid brother to me. He has always been a very thoughtful, caring, respectful man whom I’ve gotten along great with.

Dear Annie: The couple who live in the apartment next to mine are, well, noisy.

Dear Annie: I work as an editor at a publishing company. It has been difficult to find capable proofreaders.

Dear Annie: I am the mother of three boys.

Dear Annie: A friend and I enjoy shopping for clothes together. We always have fun.

Dear Annie: My ex-wife, “Daisy,” has custody of our two children. She makes several times my salary, lives in a home where the mortgage and taxes are sky-high, and has an expensive lifestyle.

Dear Annie: I have social anxiety, and I find that it’s really impacting my life.

Dear Readers: To all of the children out there and all of the children young at heart, I wish you all a very merry Christmas.

Dear Annie: I have an addictive personality, and this time of year is really tough for me.

Dear Annie: I have been a widow for almost 10 years.

Dear Annie: A couple with whom I have a very close relationship have recently become friends with their new neighbors.

Dear Annie: I hope you will publish this, as the holiday season is upon us and people will be rushing to the mall and the grocery to shop for Christmas gifts and supplies for festivities.

Dear Annie: I don’t want to continue to let two of my friends steal my time.

Dear Annie: Over the years, my son, his wife and our granddaughter have been the recipients of many gifts from my wife and me.

Dear Annie: I got engaged in June 2017. My fiance and I are planning the wedding for next year, in November 2019. But I’m having some doubts about my fiance. He

Dear Annie: My boyfriend is still taking his ex-girlfriend to see his son and his son’s family, who reside in another state.

Dear Annie: I have two grandchildren, ages 11 and 7, and I am worried about them.

Dear Annie: I have a full-time job, and I love it.

Dear Annie: My husband is friends with a couple from college with whom we have exchanged Christmas cards and graduation announcements over the past 25-plus years.

Dear Annie: A therapist recommended that I try EMDR in order to process past traumas. It sounds intriguing and fancy, but I don’t really understand what it involves.

Dear Annie: I love being a grandpa, but it seems all my fellow adults have a totally different impression of what a grandfather is supposed to be. My wife says I should be a role model and authority figure, which to me translates to being stern and official. Our daughter says essentially the same thing as her mother.

Dear Annie: Two years ago, I met a homeless man and took him in.

Dear Annie: I have a sibling who struggles with an eating disorder. I give her constant love and support and do everything I can to help her.

Dear Annie: Whenever Christmas rolls around, I feel sick.

Dear Annie: I was recently out of town for a long weekend with some girlfriends.

Dear Annie: As the holidays draw near, I like to be prepared and buy my gifts early.

For years, I’ve used ziplock bags for storing leftovers. Over the past two years, he’s insisted on buying a kind that has to be lined up perfectly to be pressed together. I hate these bags, and he knows it.

Dear Annie: I have not seen this problem discussed in your column and would really like your advice on this situation, as it’s damaged a 50-year friendship.

Dear Annie: I’m a 26-year-old man who’s very nice, thoughtful and kind.

Dear Annie: My problem certainly is not unique, yet I’m at my wits’ end on how to handle it.

Dear Annie: I want to do therapy, but I don’t think I can afford it right now.

Dear Annie: My daughter and son-in-law live in another state. He is a doctor, and she is a nurse.

Dear Annie: What is the etiquette with handicapped stalls in restrooms? When I go into a public restroom and there are multiple stalls to choose from, I like to go with the handicapped one because it’s roomier.

I am a widowed stepmother of a man and a woman. My husband and I had a cordial relationship with their mother. I grew to love her, and I think she liked me.

Dear Annie: I have a tricky problem going on right now. I am married and have been for a while — 20-plus years. It’s been a typical marriage, with its ups and downs, but I’d say I’ve been fairly content and things have been pretty good.

Dear Annie: I recently dated a woman for five months.

Dear Annie: We would like your advice before there is a problem. We will be moving later this year to live with our son and his family.

Dear Annie: Nearly a year ago, my sister was in a devastating accident. She had been drinking heavily.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I would like to thank all of you - my readers.

Dear Annie: Over the past year, I’ve discovered that there are some people in this world who are OK with “just getting by” with what is available — including leaning on or using what another person under the same roof has.

Dear Annie: My sister and I grew up in a pretty troubled home.

Dear Annie: I have a work colleague whose married son died about six months ago of cancer. His son was in his 40s.

Dear Annie: Ever since we moved to a place that is central to all my husband’s relatives, they have treated us as the Free Holiday Inn.

Dear Annie: I am the youngest of five siblings between the ages of 63 and 72.

Dear Annie: I am a college student and have met few people I would consider friends.

Dear Annie: Many years ago, I was in the U.S. military. I was sent to Southeast Asia and served three six-month tours.

Dear Annie: A former co-worker of my husband’s invited us to his son’s wedding. We received the usual “save the date” card one year prior to the ceremony. For the whole year, he asked us whether we would be attending every other week.

With the upcoming gift season, a question regarding dollar limits set by clubs.

Dear Annie: My son and his wife hardly ever really clean their house.

Dear Annie: Yesterday my husband and I spent three hours on the road, traveling from our home to our nephew’s college football game.

Dear Annie: For almost three years after college, I worked at a science camp in the nearby mountains year-round.

Dear Annie: I started to gradually notice changes in my friendship with “Marla” while I was having marital trouble.

Dear Annie: I’m wondering whether you have a copy of a piece that I believe was in an Ann Landers column.

Dear Annie: I am an active member of my small community and have served on many boards, including as an elected official.

My husband and I have been together for nine years and married for four years. His ex-wife remarried 12 years ago, but she is not happy in her marriage.

Dear Annie: I am writing about a friend I’ve had for 35 years. My friend is 60 years old.

Dear Annie: My supervisor hired a friend for a job when there were others who appeared to be more qualified.

Dear Annie: My husband of 23 years has been working for a four-man department for that whole time.

Dear Annie: I have read columns like yours since I was a child in the 1980s and always figured, “Yeah, I have problems, but I can handle them.”

Time for these ghouls to go haunt somewhere else.

Dear Annie: I’ve been dating a gentle, kind and loving man for a while. He goes to church, constantly reads his Bible and plays Christian music. We get along great.

Dear Annie: I’ve always been great at gift-giving. I enjoy giving others things that they will thoroughly enjoy.

Dear Annie: I am still in high school, meaning that having an interconnected friend group is very important.

Dear Annie: My ex-daughter-in-law believes that her 10-year-old son, my grandson, has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Dear Annie: I’m engaged to an amazing man, and we spend our days in a cute little house with our wonderful daughter.

Dear Annie: My adult daughter recently visited from out of state, and she has developed some odd and off-putting habits.

Dear Annie: I had something happen this weekend and am wondering what the solution should have been and who was in the right.

I’m 64. I have known “Ashley” for seven years. She is a mother of two young boys, ages 7 and 5.

Dear Annie: I am in my mid-20s, and I’ve found myself in a tough spot.

Dear Annie: My husband and I have become friends with another couple from church.

Dear Annie: Last year, I wrote to you about my beautiful 35-year-old daughter and the kidney transplant she’d just received through the United Network for Organ Sharing. I am “A Very Grateful Mom.”

Dear Annie: I wrote to you several months ago. I’m “Trapped by Parents.” I have a disability that has caused me to have great difficulty in both obtaining and retaining jobs.

Dear Annie: I am writing to you about the adult son of a friend of mine. This young man, “Dwayne,” has had a bad couple of years.

Dear Annie: My father has late-stage Alzheimer’s and is in a nursing home.

Annie: My husband has adult children from his first wife. My new daughter-in-law has become quite vocal about jewelry items that I wear.

Dear Annie: I have a question and hope your advice will make me see the light. I have been dating and living with my boyfriend off and on for 12 years.

Dear Annie: I was widowed two years ago. I joined a group last year that gets out and does things together.

Is there such a thing as mobile phone etiquette? The general answer to your question is no, it is not OK for people to be on their phones while in your presence.

Dear Annie: I’m a retired man. My elderly mom lived with me for a long time, and I stayed busy with her.

Today we’ll hear from parents who, if given the chance to start over, would opt not to have children.

Dear Readers: In a column last month, I posed a question: “If you had to do it all over again, would you have kids?”

Several weeks ago, someone requested that I pose a question to my readers that Ann Landers asked in 1975: “If you had to do it all over again, would you have kids?”

Dear Annie: I am currently in my second (and final!) marriage.

Dear Annie: My husband and I are alcoholics in recovery with multiple years of sobriety.

Dear Annie: I thought my husband and I had a great marriage - until I looked on his phone and found text messages to another woman. I was crushed.

Dear Annie: My niece, “Becky,” is getting married next month, and according to my younger brother “John,” I can’t attend the wedding because I have a beard.

Dear Annie: Recently, I’ve noticed that a “friend” on Facebook has been making very erratic posts, sometimes going on religious, political and metaphysical rants for hours on end.

Dear Annie: I started dating this wonderful man. It was a perfect courtship, with the exception of some minor troubled-teen issues in his life — we both have teenagers — that he was working on but didn’t tell me much about.

Dear Annie: I just started high school, and it’s been going great, but it’s kind of crazy.

Dear Annie: My wife is a self-employed accountant, and she did work for some friends a few years ago.

Dear Annie: I wish I had listened to my mom when she told me to go to college. I was 18 and didn’t want to do it.

Dear Annie: Ever meet someone who plays the victim and always needs a villain in her life?

What’s with people saying “I apologize” instead of “I’m sorry”? The former is just used to tell somebody that you know you did something wrong. When you tell somebody that you apologize, to me it means nothing.

Dear Annie: This is a burning question I’ve had for a while. As a student, I always have homework, but should I procrastinate or spread out the work over a longer period? Both end up with similar results for me.

Dear Annie: My husband and I enjoy getting together with a group of friends every couple of months.

Dear Annie: My brother-in-law, “Ted,” and his wife decided to call it quits over the holidays after being together since high school (about 25 years).

Dear Annie: Many years ago, my cat-loving sister clipped out an Ann Landers column called “How to Give Your Cat a Pill.”

My wife and I have been married for many years. She was and is my business partner and a great businesswoman. We would not be where we are today without her business acumen, drive and determination.

Dear Annie: I live in a neighborhood with two non-state-maintained roads. One is a long, straight, steep hill with about 20 residences. My neighbor “Sally” lives in the middle of the hill. She lets her pets roam free in her yard and has toddler grandchildren.

I have been at my job for almost 12 years. About three years ago, I met a girl who had recently started working there.

Dear Annie: I go to school and often see some of my classmates who are considered “popular” teasing my classmates and friends.

My wife has been guarding her phone since I found out she had been texting a guy she first claimed was a childhood friend.

Dear Annie: I have been overweight my entire life. Because of a diabetes scare a couple of years ago, I lost 50 pounds, primarily through running and modifying my diet.

Dear Annie: My husband of over 30 years is a great person, successful and well-educated. I love him dearly except for one annoying thing. He draws on people’s photos in magazines and newspapers.

Dear Annie: Next month, I’m moving into an apartment that’s smaller than my current one. So in the meantime, I’ve been going through all of my stuff, trying to purge anything I don’t use.

Dear Annie: My husband and I have been married for seven years. Having both been married and divorced before, we committed and agreed before we married that the words “separation” and “divorce” would never be discussed in our future.

Dear Annie: I have a dear friend who lives nearby, but for some reason, he will not contact me.

Dear Annie: I’m an old guy with some advice for other older people in the workforce.

Dear Annie: I have been married for one year to a classmate whom I reconnected with at our 50th high school class reunion. While he was courting me, he seemed perfect.

I am always fascinated to hear diametrically opposed yet equally valid viewpoints. Such was the case with the following two letters, which appeared in my inbox on the same day in response to “Undecided in Ohio,” who isn’t sure whether she wants kids. Read on. ...

Dear Annie: My husband and I have four young children. Generally, our children are well-behaved; however, sometimes they don’t listen to me or my husband.

Dear Annie: During the past year, I have had some health issues that have required that I stay in a hospital and then a nursing facility for several months.

Dear Annie: I have a problem with my brother, “Josh.” Josh seems to want to cut me and our mom out of his life.

Dear Annie: OK, I realize there are innumerable insurmountable, earth-shaking universal problems in our world.

Dear Annie: You recently wrote that an adult daughter was wrong to discard her mother’s pantry food without asking her first — even food that had expired.

A couple of years ago, when I was starting a business, a friend put me in touch with her friend “Margaret,” who had just started her own boutique marketing and public relations firm.

Dear Annie: I was recently shopping in a department store, when I heard the very loud screams of a child. Because the screaming was so abnormal, I wanted to seek the child out to see what was causing it.

Dear Annie: I read your column daily, but this is my first time writing to you.

Dear Annie: Next month, I will be moving into my boyfriend’s apartment, which he shares with two other guys.

Dear Annie: I need advice regarding a recent nanny experience.

Dear Annie: I’m writing about my 53-year-old stepson, “Sam.” I helped to raise Sam starting when he was 11.

Dear Annie: I’m worried that my boyfriend is abusing his prescription drugs.

Dear Annie: I’m not writing in about any problem you can solve. This letter is about a much bigger problem — namely, the state of the world today.

I have been trying to decipher my recent bad feelings toward a friend who is much wealthier than I am.

Dear Annie: It’s important to have etiquette on the phone, no matter to whom you are speaking.

Dear Annie: My best friend’s 20-something-year-old stepdaughter, “Tina,” unsuccessfully attempted to seduce my husband of 25 years, “Brad.”

Dear Annie: As a college student with no job, I made the foolish decision to sign a lease with a friend to move in together.

Dear Annie: I am seeking some advice. I have a disability, and my place of employment is discriminating against me based on that disability.

Dear Annie: I am married to a man with two children from a previous marriage.

Dear Annie: I hope you can offer a solution to my dilemma.

Dear Annie: My family (my husband, our young kids and I) vacations with two other families once or twice a year.

A man who extends his hand demanding a handshake is presumptuous and arrogant.

Dear Annie: I know I am stuck in the “old ways,” but I am trying to adapt to changing times. It is becoming very common for couples to live together before marriage.

Dear Annie: I have a friend, “Rosie,” who kicked me out to the curb (metaphorically speaking) when her sister moved into her mobile home park.

Dear Annie: My granddaughter, “Melanie,” thinks that she has a half-sister 24 years younger.