#1260: “How to maintain boundaries within stressful family relationships...
Hi Captain, My mother and I have always wanted different frequencies of interaction. After I moved out for university, at a holiday party my mother announced the only gift she ever wanted from me was...
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#1262: “My housemate keeps exposing herself to me/the world/everyone.”
Dear Captain Awkward, My 50+ y/o housemate has a problem, and I don’t know how to help. Sounds stupid but her pants are always falling down. At any given moment inch(es) of her rear crack are exposed....
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#1265: Guest Post: Lockdown Co-Parenting: Can I Please Get Some Alone Time?...
Hey Captain! I (she/her) really appreciated your response to Miserable In Quarantine. My partner (he/him) and I are fortunately getting along better than ever. It’s nice to remember that we are friends...
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#1266: Pandemic Distance-Learning Teacher-Student Boundaries
Hi Capt. Awkward, I/she/her am a high school teacher and we’re not returning to campus until next year. That means we have 12 more weeks of distance learning. Right now we’re completing Week 3. I have...
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It Came From The Search Terms: Spring 2020
We are overdue for the blog feature where I answer the search strings people typed in to find this place as if they are questions. Let’s do it! First, as is traditional, a song: RIP to one of the...
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Pandemic! Productivity! Life! Hacks! (from a deeply unproductive & freaked...
My inbox has at least 40 questions with the theme “Dear Captain Awkward, how do I stay productive right now?” stacking up in it right now. Maybe…you don’t? We are living through a collective trauma on...
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Quarantine with difficult family & other “How To Stay In” links. #COVID-19
Hello! It’s Monday! I wrote a piece for Vice about how to ride out quarantine when it means moving back in with the same people you wrote to me for advice about “surviving” holiday visits with. It’s a...
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#1267: “How do I set goals if I don’t want anything?”
Dear Captain Awkward: I’m a grown-ass woman who has been through a few cycles of therapy that have (along with medication) helped my stress, anxiety, and ADHD. I’ve gotten to a point where I am...
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#1272: “White Family Facebook Drama Over Police Racism”
Dear Cap, I’ve (she/her) got White Family Facebook Drama over police racism, regarding my (male) officer cousins, D and A. I began publicly supporting the Black Lives Matter movement in 2016, and they...
View Article#1274 and #1275: COVID-19 and Family Visits and Weddings
Hi, Captain, To cut to the chase, I (she/her) have an autoimmune disease for which I take several immunosuppressant medications — none of which are working particularly well. My parents are both over...
View Article#1276: “Setting boundaries when there’s a significant power difference (and...
Hi Captain, I’m wondering if you have a script for setting boundaries where there’s a significant power differential. Briefly, I’ve recently hired a lawyer who specializes in disability rights to...
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Link! How To Make More LGBTQ Friends
I don’t know who needs to read this but S. Bear Bergman is at Vice today with a piece on how to make more LGBTQ friends that includes both in-person hangouts and activities and online community recs...
View Article#1281: “Every conversation with my mom is an interrogation of my life choices.”
How does a gentle reminder about doing your laundry from someone who loves you become an existential struggle? Plus, strategies for changing unhealthy communication patterns that do not rely on...
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It Came From The Search Terms: July 2020
Yes! It is time! Time to treat the search strings people typed in right before they washed up on these blog shores as if they are actual questions! Inside: Mask etiquette, reformed Nice Guy apologies,...
View Article#1283: “I need to resign as my friend’s son’s godmother.”
How do you back out when when someone manipulates you - successfully- into something you don't want to do? Plus, help for when you need to ghost a baby and his manipulative parents.
View Article#1285: “My sister is in love with someone she knows tried to rape me.”
The subject title is the content warning. No graphic details, but the situation is exactly that bad.
View ArticleIt Came From The Search Terms: October Symphony (Oct. 2020)
Greetings, it is the time for the periodic tradition where I answer search strings people typed in as if they are questions. First, I want to share a few links - Here I am at Vice, writing about...
View Article#1296: “Gender may be made up but it’s still messing with me”
Rae is back, restoring a sense of discovery and play to figuring out who the heck you are.
View Article#1305: “Please help me close up the proverbial ‘woodwork’.”
"Say, Old Bean, it was really fun to have sex for a while, but I'm going to need you to find a new topic of conversation."
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