Dear Queenie,
My husband and I are both retired and he likes to go shopping with me, but it’s getting really embarrassing. There’s a pretty young girl who works in one of my favourite shops and he always makes a big fuss over her, paying her all sorts of compliments and commenting on her clothes and her jewellery and her makeup and anything else he can think of.
It’s obvious that she also finds this embarrassing and I have told him what a fool he is making of himself, but he still carries on when he sees her and she is too polite to tell him to back off.
Queenie, how do I get him to behave himself?—Embarrassed wife
Dear Embarrassed,
To begin with, stop calling him a fool. That is just plain rude, and obviously unproductive. Then tell him you do not want him to go shopping with you if he cannot behave more discreetly.
And tell that young woman and all the other salespeople in that shop that if he goes to that shop without you they should just ask him to leave unless he is there to purchase something for you. You could even give them a list of things you want/need in case he still shows up – win-win for them and for you.
