I’m a single guy, good job, active, and in my early 30s; most of my friends are married with children.
I’ll call my best friend who has two kids, and ask if he has time to hang out or whatever, but he’s simply too busy with his job and childrearing.
I’ve heard “no” so many times, I’ve just stopped calling.
We email each other a little to catch up on things.
I understand it’s hard to raise children, but still, I miss the company. I miss my friends, and it seems that if I’m not married or have kids, I’m excluded from their activities.
Is there anything I can do to try to reconnect with them?

- Left Out

Make “family” of your friends – spend some time with them in their family life, and show your interest in it. You can still “hang out” and get even closer with a best friend, if you go along with him and his kids to a park, a skating rink, a hockey game, whatever’s going on.
Your married buddies will be happy to have an occasional “guys night out” with you, but they also want your respect and understanding for the time they put in being good dads and husbands.
You’ll be glad you got to know them better this way… if you eventually join their ranks of domestic life.
Meantime, also, increase your network of single guy friends by being open to meet new people through work, a gym, a team sport, etc.

For seven years we’ve been friends with benefits; I’ve always had feelings for him and wished for more. We stopped for two months when we were both in relationships.
Now we’re back together and my feelings are stronger. But I don’t think he wants to ruin what we’ve got if something more doesn’t work.
Should I stay with him and see if it goes anywhere, or stop being there every time he needs someone?

- Confused

You can bet he doesn’t want to “ruin” what you’ve got – which is free booty with no effort, no commitment, no need to even care about your feelings.
He knows what they are and takes advantage… because you let him.
This arrangement will end when he finds someone he cares about and can’t have so easily.
Straighten your spine and walk out of this deal. Then try to build the self-esteem to want better for yourself.

I’m a single mother living with my boyfriend in a home we bought.
After dating two years, and seven months living together, I feel increasingly depressed about being unmarried. We’re both well-paid professionals, but I want the added level of stability.
My boyfriend says we’ll marry when he thinks I’m fully satisfied with the relationship. I feel it’s a cop-out for him to determine this; I’m feeling powerless and resentful. Yet I really want this relationship to work.

- Forever Waiting

Your boyfriend has passive control down to a science: So long as he says YOU’RE the one who’s not fully satisfied, the delay in marrying is your fault. But he doesn’t realize he’ll end up pushing you to end this standoff, by leaving him.
You’ve been together long enough to plan a future, and you’re a mother who has to think of the children’s stability, too. Plus you’ve invested in a home with him.
Insist that it’s time to stop the power struggle and get professional counselling to determine whether you two are ready to marry, or part.

I work for a small company, like my job, and co-workers but had an unpleasant encounter with the company’s founder who behaved boorishly in the cafeteria. He took pop without paying, and when the staff person protested, he made misogynist comments and a crass joke about my weight.
Being the nerdy fat kid caused me to develop a thick skin, but what TRULY offended me, was his arrogant lack of respect for ANYONE.
I’d hate to do something drastic and end up throwing the co-workers I respect under the bus as a result.

- Outraged

This has nothing to do with co-workers. Either you can continue working there, or feel you can’t.
The man’s a boor, but you may not have to run into him often.
If you do have more contact and he insults you again, tell him that’s unacceptable, and either he values your work or you quit.