The Stepfamily Files: parental duties

Phil has moved in with his daughter aged 16 and son aged 14. How far should Caroline go in caring for and protecting them?

Dear Tanya: My daughter won’t see her dad

My eight-year-old doesn’t want to visit to my ex with his new girlfriend

How many Facebook friends is too many?

The internet has created the illusion of mass intimacy, but 151 friends is an unmanageable number, says an academic

How to survive a Wag's life

As John Terry's wife suffers amid his indiscretions, meet the football wives and girlfriends to hear their survival tactics

Bah! I was thin under Saddam Hussein

An email friendship with a British mother gave an Iraqi Jane Austen enthusiast a way out of the hell in Iraq

Mrs Mills: Ickle irritation

What should I do if a woman I am forced to converse with daily has a simpering, overexaggerated little-girl voice?

Laureate of loving, living and leaving

Carol Ann Duffy, our first female poet laureate, reveals that her work was shaped by a shocking teenage affair

My woman needs to tend the bush

I suppose the ubiquity of internet porn has also changed the parameters, but, then again, porn style is not a man’s ideal

RSPCA to pay lecturer's £1.3 million legal costs

Dr Christine Gill, an only child, already won a legal battle to inherit the farm her parents left to animal charity

Where are Hollywood’s gay men?

Colin Firth has been nominated for an Academy Award for playing a gay man in A Single Man. But gay actors still hide

The stepfamily files: what to do when three’s a crowd

Our expert says a rebellious teenager can wreck the harmony of any family

Mrs Mills: named for passion

I have noticed young women with their names tattooed on their backs, presumably to help assorted lovers get their names correct

Sally: I'm so lonely

I'm no good at friendships or love, although I’ve had many casual sex encounters with men. I don't want to be lonely forever

Why every single person should give DIY a go

Things you only know if you’re single... yes, we can; well – you know – largely.

I’ve rekindled an affair on Facebook

Our affair to remember column comes this week from a married woman who can’t let go of an old, destructive relationship

Happiness is a separate bathroom

Stars like Catherine Zeta-Jones put their happy marriages down to his-and-hers loos. But what if you live in a semi?

Does settling for Mr Good Enough make sense?

A new book says that women should learn to compromise on who they marry. It might be right

Dear Tanya: my daughter won’t use the potty

It sounds to me as if your little girl is using her behaviour to control and manipulate. Do not despair. This is normal

Brad Pitt’s dreaded beard

Whatever the rumour mill says about divorce lawyers, nothing says “life crisis” quite like a tangled, matted chin rug