Brawl In The Family

My formerly loving parents are fighting constantly and putting me in the middle, frequently calling to complain about each other. They even phoned me together during a heated argument to ask whose side I was on. This is gut-wrenching, and it's been great to have my boyfriend's ear, but I was humiliated to discover he'd called Catholic services and his parents to ask what I should do. He's a sweet guy, and I'm trying to forgive him, but I feel he compromised my trust.

--Exposed

You counted on two people to be the mature adults in your life -- and then the "honey, do" list became the "honey, die" list. (It's enough to make a girl march into AT&T and ask them to take her off the Family Plan.) As mortified as you are that your boyfriend took your problem out and introduced it around, this is a sign, not that you can't trust him but that you can -- to be there for you when the chips are down instead of turning up the game and crunching extra-hard on the Doritos. Applaud him for his good intentions, and then make sure he understands your "privacy settings." Next, inform the enemy combatants that your ear is now off-limits for trash-talking and that you'll say goodbye and hang up fast whenever either starts. Ask them to see a mediator to help them work out terms to live by in the immediate future (get names at Mediate.com) and find a therapist to help them over the long term -- for their sake and so seeing them might eventually be more like going to Donny Osmond's family reunion than Don Corleone's.