Dear LFTP: wife hurt by friend calling her 'cheap'
- My wife was hurt when her friend called her 'cheap.' How do I make her realize the comment shouldn't upset her?
Mike (speaker-1) reads a letter: the writer's wife Tina was hurt when her friend Sally called her 'cheap' ('she's cheap like you'); the couple uses coupons, watches thermostats, and recycles — yet sent their kids to university debt-free, paid off the mortgage, and have a net worth north of $1M. Counsel: if it's true, embrace it; if not, say so and forgive — happiness shouldn't depend on others' view of your character. JC: in Tijuana money isn't the point, people are; 'being cheap's okay as long as you're loving your friends and family.' Secular: Sally probably meant 'frugal' (a virtue); Tina should tell Sally how it made her feel. Closes with a parenting-discipline riff and the 'Secular says Mike is handsome' gag.
More on Forgiveness
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Dear LFTP: the $4,200 loan that never came back
- How do I get past the sadness over the $4,200 loan my friend never repaid — do I just let it go?
The final Dear LFTP letter: a year ago a supposed friend asked to borrow money — her husband had left the country to renew his visa, her car was repossessed, she had no way to get to work.
From No. 603 · Found Out
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Dear LFTP: the stolen college fund and telling the 90-year-olds
- Should I tell my 90-year-old parents that their grandson stole my granddaughter's college fund?
Ben hands to Mike, who reads a grandmother's letter: her son helped himself to the college money the great-grandparents set aside for her granddaughter; she fears telling her parents, in their nineties, could shock them into a stroke.
From No. 586 · Nothing Personal
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Dear LFTP: forty years of a cheating wife and a temptation
- Would it be wrong to rekindle an old friendship for intimacy when my wife has cheated for forty years?
A man approaching his fortieth anniversary writes that his wife has always been a serial cheater, a secret he kept to protect the children's view of her; with retirement and a sexless marriage he asks whether rekindling things with old female friends would be wrong.
From No. 581 · Silly Rabbit | Christianity, Culture, and Navigating Social Expectations
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Dear LFTP: the stalker ex-girlfriend
- How do I get my stalker ex-girlfriend to leave me alone?
Mike reads a letter from a man whose ex-girlfriend keeps trying to get him back, even stalking him, after he blocked her number.