Boundaries and Borderlines

I’m still working from home post-shutdown and so is my husband. We have separate work areas in our home thankfully but at all times of the day he’s coming into my space interrupting my work. I’ve tried telling him he needs to leave me alone but he insisted on barging in. How can I make him stop?

One might think that running to a home improvement store and purchasing a door lock would do the trick however all you’re going to get is endless knocking. Try talking to him on a mutual coffee break, telling him that you’re going to need him to let you concentrate on work for the remainder of the day. The following day, tell him at breakfast you’re going to be on and off Zoom meetings all day and that you’ll see him at dinner. Hopefully he’ll comply, but what he doesn’t know is that for a two-day period he’s changing his behavior. Go for a third day to fortify the behavior change and hopefully your borders will be secure.

We went on vacation with another couple a few years ago and they’re suggesting we do it again. We had fun with them but the problem is that they insist on sharing a hotel room- and we really hated that. We like spending time with them but not that much time- how can we approach the topic of separate rooms?

Easy- you just do it. Tell your friends that you love sharing a vacation but this time you insist on separate hotel rooms. And by insist, I mean INSIST. If they show no interest in complying, then politely decline and choose another vacation for just the two of you.

I’ve only had three dates with a guy and he friended me on Facebook. It feels a bit intrusive to me and I’m not sure I want to accept.

If you’re interested enough in him to invest time in three dates then you must see something in him that you like. It’s doubtful he’s trying to “invade” your other friends and by friending you he's not asking to change your relationship status. The worst thing that can happen is you unfriend and block if you stop dating him.