Dear Queenie,

A while ago I bought myself a house and since then my boyfriend started staying over a lot, in fact he’s practically living here. He still has his own place, but he stopped paying his water and electricity bills so they turned them off and he’s saving a lot of money.

He comes and goes when he pleases and although he buys his own beer and sometimes a few groceries, mostly I do all the shopping and the housework which he doesn’t help with.

Queenie, how do I tell him I expect him to pitch in without spoiling our relationship?—Exasperated

Dear Queenie,

My sister gave me a pretty necklace for my birthday. Sometime later I saw her daughter wearing matching earrings and I found out they came as a set with the necklace but my sister split them up.

Queenie, should I feel insulted? Maybe I should give my niece the necklace so she can have the whole set?—Confused Sister

Dear Queenie,

My teenage daughter argues with me about everything. If I said the sky is blue she would argue about what shade of blue, or that it was too cloudy to say that or whatever.

One day I asked her to pick up some cake mix at the supermarket and she gave me a big argument about why I would want to bake a cake when I could just buy one from the bakery department (and I never did get the cake mix).

Queenie, why does she have to be so disagreeable?—Fed up

Dear Queenie,

Our family gets together on special occasions, but one person’s spouse works odd hours and often can’t attend, so this person brings along a container to take home leftovers for the spouse.

That doesn’t bother me so much, but when the party is at a restaurant, this person orders an extra meal “to go” for the spouse and the host ends up paying the bill for the takeout meal.

Queenie, is this right?—Etty Ket