Engaged couple crave their freedom

Dear Abby: I am a 25-yearold woman. My fiance is 26. Both of us live at home with our parents but have decided to move out in a few months to an apartment. Although his parents have given their blessing, my parents are against it and keep trying to change my mind.

Abby, I have been wanting to leave for years. Both of us are experiencing tension living at home with our parents and trying to get along as adults.

We feel it’s time for us to move out, and we also crave our freedom. We are tired of my parents not regarding me as an adult capable of making her own decisions. What should I do? I don’t want them getting in the way on move-in day.

Grown Woman in Mississippi

Dear Woman: It’s time for you and your fiance to sit down together with your parents. Tell them you love them, but you are no longer minors. You are both well into adulthood, and it is time for you to live independently. Then give them the date you plan to move your belongings and stick to it. A way to ensure that they won’t get in your way on moving day would be to enlist the assistance of some friends to help you make the move.

Dear Abby: Recently, I took my two sons to a cooking class. The instructor, a married woman and mother, was very friendly and nice.

She kept telling me I was “beautiful” and how lucky

my boys are to have such a beautiful mom. She also kept calling me “my love.” I found it peculiar, but didn’t give it a lot of thought because I presumed she was being friendly and I know some people speak that way.

I am more reserved. I save words like “love” for people I truly love (my kids and husband).

However, my husband was upset that I didn’t ask her to stop. He said he felt I disrespected him because I allowed someone else to call me “my love.”

Had she been a man, I’d understand his feelings, but I saw no harm in it. Am I wrong for not having spoken up?

War of Words in New Jersey

Dear W.O.W.: Your husband is overreacting. The woman was not being disrespectful. She went overboard trying to pay you a compliment. All you had to do was smile and say, “Thank you very much, but you are making me uncomfortable. Please. No more.”

Write to Dear Abby at P.O. Box 96440, Los Angeles, CA 90069 or dearabby.com