Mute unsettling geopolitical chit-chat at home

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This article was published 20/03/2022 (1609 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: I love my husband, but we’ve been fighting over how much of the war in Ukraine I can stand in the house!

My guy — who has never fought in a war — has his chair pulled up, and his head practically in the television set, soaking up everything he can. Because I’m the other adult in the house, he wants to report what he sees and hears to me, and discuss all the issues. When I refuse, he says, “You don’t even care!”

The point is I care too much. I tune in to the news reports twice a day and can’t sleep well at night for worrying. My husband — the little armchair general — sleeps like a baby, as he’s exhausted from watching the war news. Ha! What can be done about this? I’m so sick of him being this way.

— Mismatched in War Time, Norwood

Dear Mismatched: Climbing into bed with the latest war reports replaying in your head makes it impossible to sleep well. That’s understandable. So, buy your husband a comfortable, good-quality pair of earphones to connect to the TV. That will give you some peace and quiet to live in the house again.

As for his wanting you to discuss the latest attacks and other war news, suggest he engage with friends and relations who may enjoy a phone buddy right now. Later, your armchair general can climb into bed overloaded and weary from the reports and the satisfying analysis he’s had with a buddy.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: COVID ended a budding relationship I’d just started with a tall, sexy woman. To my surprise, she told me she didn’t want to “get intimate” with a guy in the medical world during a pandemic. I understood, and frankly didn’t blame her.

Things are easing up now, so I called her this week, hoping for a reunion, and she said coldly, “It’s not over yet, my friend.”

I said, “Your friend? I thought we had a great thing going, before COVID.” She went silent.

I won’t lie. COVID was a two-year waste of my sex life. I called her, because I thought we wouldn’t have to go back to square 1. What’s going on?

— Medical Guy, Winnipeg

Dear Medical Guy: Sorry to tell you this, but many new couples hung in there for two years of COVID, even if they weren’t exactly “feeling the love.” Why? Finding someone else was highly unlikely during the pandemic.

This woman you called up two years later for a hot reunion wasn’t interested in you when COVID started, and isn’t now when the virus seems to be petering out. Women know the sound of a hound dog howling. You called her thinking you could just forgo the pleasantries of romance and get right to it.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: My wife banged up the car I bought her five years ago, and now she wants a van. The accident she had after the last huge snowfall was all her fault. I think she should learn a lesson rather than be rewarded for her bad driving.

She’s staying home full-time with the little kids, and argues she needs a safer vehicle. Yes, we can well afford it, but it makes me mad. Her driving sucks!

— Irate Husband, Bridgwater

Dear Irate: How about you buy your wife and kids a safer new car and some formal lessons with a driving professional. (That teacher would not be you.)

By the way, your wife does have a big job, but it’s not paid like jobs she had before she married and had the babies. For everybody’s good — yours, the babies and hers — the safest vehicle you can afford and brush-up driving lessons for both of you are in order.

Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@hotmail.com or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6.

Miss Lonelyhearts
Advice Columnist

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