Dear Prudence is Slate's advice column. Submit questions here. Dear Prudence, I just found out something horrible about my friend. Her dad is her mom's son. That is, she is a product of incest. She casually mentioned it one day when we were at book club. Do I break off her friendship? She is lovely and has kids of her own with a lovely man, whom my husband and I are friends with. -Not Loving the Lineage
My college bestie has many wonderful qualities, and I won't go into those because this is an advice column letter. I'll get straight to the meat of it. She's an unabashed social climber. Her design firm has a lot of high-net-worth clients, and as she moves up the ranks of her company, she's getting to work on more high-end accounts.
My life partner and I built and moved into our dream home together a few years ago. We have a decent-sized family and a reasonable number of friends with whom we like to socialize. We are very intentional about whom we invite over and when. Some friends get along with anyone, and others are better off with their own invite on a one-on-one.