Wow, I could not believe the readers' responses regarding the girl who's dying mom couldn't get her to do housework. Here's a 16 or 17 year old girl who is a full-time student, has a part-time job, and is dealing with her mom dying. This does not sound like a "selfish, prissy, hedonistic little brat who only thinks of herself" to me."

I can't believe people would begrudge this child some time with her friends, when she can maybe escape from the difficult situation she's dealing with and just be a teenager for a little while. Plus, she needs to spend some quality time with her mom, not dusting and sweeping. I absolutely can't believe people think that having a spotless house is more important than the girl's emotional health and the precious time she has left with her mom.

I think Prudy's advice was right on.

That horse is dead.
Long dead.
Why you whackin' it?

Leg iron:

I read Prudy's end-of-year column about which topics generated the most negative responses, and that topic was one of them. I remember reading the original column, but as I basically agreed with Prudy, did not feel any need (or have the time) to post or read any other comments at that time.

Just now reading some of what I feel are the unbelievable responses she got, I felt the need to comment.

I would love to read other responses but have searched the site for them unsuccessfully. ( I am not a very frequent user of this message board, have only posted one other time.) I would really appreciate it if you could let me know how to go about finding those responses so I could read them.

Thank you, Nancy G

Could be that they were posted before the board was converted over. If so, you can't find them anymore, they were wiped out.

Did you actually use the Search function, or did you just browse around hoping to run into the messages carefully labeled and stored somewhere? Typing "disabled" (a key word from the letter) into the search bar gets me 5 pages of messages. On the first page, at least, every hit relates to that letter. Oh, and the best idea is to search from the DP Fray (not from Slate's homepage or the DP page; you'll get all kinds of articles from other parts of the site) and search "Dear Prudence" rather than "All forums".

I am frantically in love with this post. I need it on a t-shirt, now.