Dear Karen, My husband is a good guy; he really loves me, and he tries to me happy. I love him very much. Here’s my problem: I am not getting my needs met in the bedroom (this is so hard for me to talk about). He just doesn’t seem to “get” me and get what I...
karen jones
It's Good For Both of You
Dear Karen, I want your opinion on something: I’ve been married for 22 years. We get along fine, our kids are happy and well-adjusted, and we have no real issues in our life together. Here’s the deal – I just don’t have any interest in having s-e-x, and I haven’t...
Rekindling Physical Passion
Dear Karen, I need to know what to do about this issue: I don’t want to have to have sex with my husband. We didn’t start out like this; we were very active, and both loved it. I know one thing that has happened is that, since the birth of our child, and what...
Believe Him When He Says He's Not Ready
Hello Karen, I'm in a very difficult situation and unsure if I should continue it or end it before I waste more time and pain. I've been dating a man for the past 2 years. The first year we were very on and off as he has been in the process of a divorce and he asked...
Dating The Divorced Man
Dear Karen, I’ve been dating a wonderful man for over a year now…I just adore him. He’s (very) recently divorced and has two young kids he sees every other weekend and one night a week. His relationship with his ex is okay – not great, but not awful. My question is...
Your Husband, Not Your Mother
Dear Karen, My husband is not being very understanding about something, and I need your advice. He is angry with me because of the way my mother is, which is, in HIS opinion, very meddlesome. How is that my fault? I love my mother, and we’re very close. She cares...
He's Out of Work, You're Out of Patience
Dear Karen, My partner has been unemployed for a few months now, and has basically moved in with me. I don’t feel financially strained to have him here, but I'm running out of patience. I don’t think he is working hard enough to get a job. I need him to support me...
Set Him Up To Succeed
Dear Karen, It’s that time of year again – my husband will invariably get me something I don’t want for Christmas, and ignore what I’ve told him I do want. Again. It wasn’t always like this…for the first few years, he tried to listen and to give me what I wanted. ...
What’s Wrong With My Husband?
Hi, Karen, I hope you can help me with this, because I’m at my wits’ end. If I have to trip over the over-full trash one more time, I’ll scream! What is wrong with my husband that he doesn’t do this one frickin’ simple job, when it needs to be done? Why do I have...
Getting Through The Holiday Headaches
Dear Karen, An issue arises between my man and me every Christmas. I come from a family that enjoys the holiday immensely – in all ways. Christmas is not something my man looks forward to with the same level of excitement that I do; each year, a couple of weeks...
Happy (?!?!) Holidays
This can be such a challenging time of year for people, partly because our expectations of experiencing all this joy, fun, love and happiness (that’s supposed to be abundant in our lives through the holidays) may not actually be happening. In fact, quite the opposite...
The Trouble With Valentine's Day
If you’re like most women (from my observations), you can get yourself fairly worked up leading up to Valentine’s Day...and the media sure does throw gas on that fire! Note: If you’re a woman who doesn’t get emotionally hooked by this “Hallmark holiday”, you may...
Ways To Get What You Need
Hello, Karen, I’ve been married for many years, and am not sure I’m willing to stay in the marriage any longer. I am married to a man who is not being very cooperative. The more I explain what it is he’s doing that upsets me, the more he seems to do it. The more I...
Getting The Support You Need
Dear Karen, I am very frustrated, and I hope you can help me. My husband has become a lazy S.O.B., and seems perfectly content to let me work like a dog. When he gets home from work, he spends all his time playing on his stupid Xbox, when it should be perfectly...
Does He Even Know What You Want?
Dear Karen, I am so frustrated I could scream! I feel like I have no support at home – I feel like I’m doing it all, and alone…and meanwhile my man gets everything he needs from me (and then some!). What gives? Am I just living with the world’s most selfish man? –...
Allowing Him To Provide and Protect
Dear Karen, How do you get past your husband’s "I don't have time for this" grumpies when he’s too busy and tired to talk, and you need/want him to listen or to get his input? What’s the best way to get his cooperation? – Anonymous Dear Anon, Excellent question; now...
What You See Is What You Get
Dear Karen, I am really unhappy about something - I hope you can shed some light on why my husband is being such an idiot. He is a total workaholic, and can’t seem to carve out any time for me. I tell him how upset I get when he’s not around, and he just doesn’t...
Stop Hurting Him With Your Concern
Dear Karen, I’ve tried everything under the sun to get my husband to lose weight, because I want him to be around for a long time - and he’s got to be shortening his life with all the extra weight (not to mention I am just not that attracted to him). I’ve tried:...
Managing and Eliminating Resentment
Dear Karen, My parner is such an idiot! I give and give and give, and he shows no appreciation for the sacrifices I’m making so that we can be together (we live about 2 hours apart, and I drive to his house every weekend). He just expects me to be there, at his...
Let’s Talk About Money
Dear Karen, My husband and I can talk about anything - except money. No matter what I do or how good my intentions are at the start of the conversation, by the end we're arguing and the tension lasts for days after. There are a lot of money issues we need to discuss...