Dear Abby: Her air freshener habit has led to an unexpected problem

DEAR ABBY One co-worker in our office of six loves to bake She s certainly wonderful at it and brings a baked item for our birthdays Related Articles Dear Abby What I meant to be a compliment led to a big rift with my son s wife Dear Abby I don t want to butt in but yoga isn t going to fix her difficulty Dear Abby My husband is drifting along as a low-paid professor Is it time for an ultimatum Dear Abby What s the deadline for telling my partner I m pregnant Dear Abby Is it normal for a mother and son to kiss like that Unfortunately she has quite a scant plug-in air fresheners in her kitchen so every item she brings in to share is saturated with perfume No one wants to say anything because she is extremely sensitive and would be crushed Is there a way to put it gently TASTING IT IN WASHINGTON DEAR TASTING If the oil from her air fresheners is transferring to the treats your co-worker brings someone necessities to discreetly take her aside and speak up A way to phrase it would be You are consistently so generous in bringing birthday goodies for everyone and we really appreciate it But the last time we tried your fabulous chocolate cake we noticed the scent of Jungle Gardenia or Alpine Pine etc Do you think it might have come from your plug-in air freshener It would be a shame if the fragrances affected the quality of your wonderful baked goods Unplugging the air freshener during the baking and cooling would ostensibly do the trick DEAR ABBY My husband and I ultimately got custody of his daughter Amelia days before her th birthday She came to us with home-schooling and little socialization Now she s and we ve gotten her on track to graduate but she has thoroughly changed She plans to move in with her boyfriend and is skipping school My husband feels we can t get on her situation about it since we ve had her for only two years We ve had three boys who graduated and two girls who haven t yet We made the boys his stepsons go to school every day and live at home until they graduated We will do the same with our younger girls Abby why is he scared for me to tell Amelia that she can t move out until after graduation especially not with her boyfriend or get on her about missing school all the time STERN STEPMOM IN KANSAS DEAR STEPMOM Your husband may fear that Amelia is too headstrong to be reasoned with and worry that if he asserts himself his daughter will become estranged You described yourself as Stern Stepmom If the way you demonstrate that is by insisting your husband s children graduate with a basic learning I don t consider it heavy-handed However if there is more to it Amelia may be moving out to get away from you Related Articles Asking Eric My husband won t tell me what happened to his car Harriette Cole Should I invite Dad if he s not happy about my wedding Miss Manners I just located out what my mother-in-law has been saying about me Dear Abby What I meant to be a compliment led to a big rift with my son s wife Asking Eric I want these women out of my fiance s house Perhaps a different approach might be more effective Amelia is old enough to be talked with woman to woman If you can impress upon her that you and her father care only about her welfare that the decisions she is making now will affect her entire future perhaps she will be more open to hearing your message The fact that she s moving out is less major than failing to complete her instruction and get that high school diploma Let that be your focus when you and her dad speak to her Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren also known as Jeanne Phillips and was founded by her mother Pauline Phillips Contact Dear Abby at www DearAbby com or P O Box Los Angeles CA