Help! My Boyfriend Is Refusing to Let Us Break Up Over a Major Disagreement.

Dear Prudence is Slate’s advice column. You will be able to identify people who are your friends because they’ll say things like “Send me more vacation pictures!” “You guys look great!” “Where’s this weekend’s cycling destination?” and even “You know I love my kids but damn, sometimes I get really jealous of your life choices!” But if you do want to remain civil with them, despite their tendency to attack your entire life and suggest that it’s not valid, there are ways to lightly dismiss their comments. In response to, “You don’t know what you’re missing out on” try, “And based on what we’ve heard about poop explosions and sleep deprivation, we don’t WANT to know!” When they accuse you of being selfish say, “Yep and we’re having the time of our lives” or “We are, and we’ve heard CPS doesn’t love it when leave babies at home while you go out and focus 100 percent on doing things that make you extremely happy so it’s probably best we don’t have them!” Got a question about kids, parenting, or family life? Dear Prudence, I’m a woman in my early-30s, and I’ve been with my wonderful girlfriend “Katy” for two years. In the past year, Katy has gotten close to her friend “Josh”—they work in the same field, share a lot of interests I don’t, and he seems like a great friend to her.