Readers, please send your letters. They can be emails, formal letters or handwritten notes. They are edited solely for grammar and spelling. Also, they are sometimes edited for length.
Dear Doctor Love,
We are having our first baby in three months. We have been planning a long time for this. We have everything we could possibly use in the first year.
On this island baby showers are important to most people. We would like to get off without having a baby shower if we could but we know it would be very difficult. It’s just a fact that people are going to want to see the baby. It is traditional to bring a gift to a baby shower but we would like to avoid this if we can. Our apartment is tiny and we really don’t need anything. I thought maybe we could send out announcements for people to come see the baby and not say anything about a gift. Do you think that would be rude? Could it work for us?
/s/ New Mom
Dear Mom,
Every couple has the right to choose how to handle their baby shower. You can send out an announcement of the baby’s birth and say that you don’t intend to have a shower but ask them to come and see the baby.
Dear Doctor Love,
I am the only girl in my family who has ever gone to college. It puts a lot of pressure on me. I am an honor roll student graduating this year. I am involved in student government. I am in every club I can attend and it is hard to keep up this kind of activity.
Here in college I met the perfect guy for me. We made all kinds of plans for the future and are very much in love. At the beginning of this year he had to move away and I have been depressed ever since. I know how hard it is to keep love alive at a long distance. Every night I cry myself to sleep.
What can I do?
/s/ Unsigned
Dear Unsigned,
Remember how young you are. You are at the beginning of your life, not the end. There is a chance that a long distance romance will not endure. There is also a chance that it would not last if he stayed here. If the love does last, it was meant to be. If it does not last, it is time to move on.
You are putting too much pressure on yourself to succeed. It is important to be able to judge when you do not have time to participate in a school activity. Cutting the activities will ease the pressure.
