Every partnership faces differences, and this week’s column explores two examples.

This week’s questions both connect to setting boundaries and expectations.

This week’s questions highlight that everyone has their own definition of what it means to be a friend.

This week’s questions both touch on reading between the lines in relationships and trusting yourself to navigate and decide what is the best fit for you.

This week’s questions are both connected to situations where the reader writing in wants a rule to follow, but they actually get to decide who they want to be in each situation.

Social gatherings can be a source of stress even before the event happens, as this week’s questions demonstrate.

This week’s questions come from readers who are wondering if they can trust themselves to navigate the timing and their own read on their relationships.

This week, both questions come from readers navigating situations outside their control, even though they wish they could control them. Both care deeply about their situations, but are faced with how …

This week’s questions are both connected to facing the desire to step in and do something, one in anticipation of a choice and the other in retrospect.

Sometimes, we know what we actually want, but aren’t sure it’s OK to actually ask for it because we are afraid of what others might think. Today’s questions wrestle with how to balance being …

Decisions can be hard to make, and facing the outcome can also be challenging.

Some situations require us to handle something a bit unexpected, and this week’s questions both apply:

Both of this week’s questions tackle the awkwardness that can arise without a clear rulebook everyone is following. In both situations, bringing some curiosity can help find clarity.

The first question this week comes from Mary in Balsam Lake: “There is a girl in our friend group who talks way too much, and it's mostly about herself. It's exhausting. What can I say?” 

This week’s questions are centered on deciding if and how to speak up in challenging situations. The first comes from Karen in Siren: My husband got fired for harassing a co-worker and he …

This week’s questions both involve situations full of emotion and a sense of pressure to act a certain way.

This week’s questions both focus on navigating conflict with people you care about—and deciding how to respond when frustration runs high.

Both of this week’s questions explore what to do when a friend’s behavior isn’t what you expected. Mary in Centuria writes: My friend is a personal trainer, and she just got engaged. …

This week’s questions both touch on navigating uncertainty in relationships.

This week’s question comes from Gretchen in Osceola: I am an ICU nurse, and I have worked every Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Year’s for the last six years. It …