Below are the letters from @Home Episode 2. We'd love to know what you think! Do you agree with the panel or are they totally wrong? Have your say on these topics in the comments section.
1/4 LIFE CRISIS
Well, it’s happened. It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting at my parents’ feet learning all the life wisdoms that they could impart. I closed my eyes and BAM! Well, now I feel too old for clubs (yet persist on going) and my hair is simultaneously thinning and greying. Yep. I’m twenty-five.
By this point I thought I’d have my dream job straight out of uni; be in a committed relationship; have my own place and be thinking about kids. The dream. So simple I thought! Wrong!
I’m recently unemployed; am still driving my first car; my doctor has told me to stop drinking like an eighteen-year-old if I like my liver; couldn’t be more single if I tried and the Facebook pictures of babies and weddings all belong to my friends. And now, thanks to COVID, I’ve had to move back in with the parents.
I’m panicking and all of a sudden, I’ve realised I’m not so young anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I hardly need a Zimmer frame, but surely, I should have something sorted out by now? Has society placed too many expectations on young people? Please tell me I’m not the only one having some bizarre quarter-life crisis! Is this normal?
TRENT, DALKEITH,WA
TAKE THE HINT!
Dear Sweet and Sour,
My boyfriend and I broke up recently broke up. It was awful because I fell in love with him super hard and super quickly, but it just wasn’t working. So just as quickly I fell out of love and I ended it. I tried to be kind and let him down easy saying "there might be a chance in the future" and that I would like to try and stay friends. Well, that’s turned out to be a big mistake.
We’ve spoken on the mobile a few times since and every time we talk, he plays off like we never broke up calling me babe, hun and things like that. We’ve met up in person a couple of times too and I’ve tried to talk to him about it, but he keeps trying to put his arm around me or hold my hand – which I pull away from. He is simply not getting the hint.
I really do want to keep being his friend, but he's making it hard. So, panel, do you believe you can be friends with your ex? And if so, how do I keep him in my life as a friend, but still get him to accept that we are no longer an item?
DIANNA, BRIGHTON, VICTORIA
PICK YOUR MOMENT
Am I the only one who thinks technology might be taking over our lives? You can go to any restaurant and see some kid sitting there on his or her smartphone during a family dinner and the parents by their lack of concern, condoning the child's antisocial behaviour?
Yes I'm angry about it. You see, immediately after my girlfriend and I were having an intimate moment last week, I lay there thinking about how much I love this girl but she just reached passed me for her phone and opened Instagram and Facebook!
I was furious! She apologised and everything but I’m still pretty angry. How is ok to pull out phones at moments like these? Surely, we should be teaching one another how to live without checking how many likes we have at every single moment of the day? How do we manage this new menace??
JAKE, BONDI , NSW