Imagine that you like starting every day with a piece of toast. You do it for 20 years. You’re totally content with it — until one day, you’re not. There’s nothing wrong with the toast. But maybe it’s time for an English muffin. And maybe after years of having decent, if unadventurous, sex, you’re hitting midlife and thinking, “Maybe a vibrator?” If the thought of pulling out a giant wand from the bedside table is uncomfortable, consider starting small, says Robin Milhausen, professor of family relations and human sexuality at the University of Guelph. A lot of new small vibrators fit in the p ..read more

You can’t live without good friends. But every once in a while, there’s one pal you think you just might be able to survive without. What’s the best way to end a friendship gracefully (with as little distress and hurt feelings as possible) without relying on social media to do the dirty work for you? Learn how to gauge whether or not a friendship has run its course, and if so, three ways to keep the parting short and sweet: Signs it may be over If you dread the very idea of calling her or seeing her, and if looking at her Facebook page gives you a migraine and/or the powerful u ..read more

Recently, I was at a party, and in between handfuls of tortilla chips, I found myself in a conversation about the tendency to stay in a relationship too long—even when you know that the person you’re dating isn’t right for you. Most people know this phenomenon intimately. Breaking up with people isn’t fun—even if the relationship is well past its expiration date. “Think of happiness on a scale of one to 10,” a friend once told me. “Your relationship might only be a five, but breaking up might temporarily bring you down to a three. It doesn’t matter that you’ll eventually be happier than you we ..read more

Photo, Ondine Corewijn/Stocksy. “Open the door,” said my dad. “We are outside, and it’s important.” “No!” I screamed into the phone. “Leave me alone.” I knew what my parents wanted to say. Two weeks earlier, Phillip, my husband of eight years—my high-school sweetheart, best friend, father of my two toddlers, Carrie and Isabelle—had told me he was unhappy. He was going to stay at a hotel for a few days to think. But the days stretched into a confusing blur of weeks. I knew that we had been struggling, but I was so caught up in daily family life that I hadn’t noticed just how bad it was. I mis ..read more

Your mother is telling you to stick it out for the sake of the kids. Your best friend with the hot new fling thinks you should have ended things years ago. And your co-worker, who side-hustles home-brewed kombucha, wants to sign you up for a tantric yoga retreat. When it comes to offering opinions about divorce, “everyone has something to say, and a lot of it has nothing to do with your own situation,” says journalist Wendy Paris, who chronicled her own marital breakup in a book called Splitopia: Dispatches from Today’s Good Divorce, and How to Part Well. Paris, who split up with her husband i ..read more

One afternoon, I was cleaning up after lunch with my toddler balanced on my hip when I saw it: a Ziploc bag in the garbage. “Eric!” I shouted in frustration at my husband, who wasn’t even home. My daughter looked expectantly at me. “Dada home?” I shook my head, glad that he wasn’t. The words I was thinking of were not playground-approved. I’ve had my Ziploc bags for years, washing and reusing them as if the planet depends on it. To see one in the trash felt like my husband was blockading my climate protest. Now, I know reusing ancient freezer bags won’t stop the permafrost from melting, and th ..read more

(Illustration: iStock) Janet*, 49, had a great first date with a man who she met on Tinder. “He bought me dinner—it was nice,” she says. Afterwards, they walked to the parking lot and as they were saying their goodbyes, he kissed her. “When I kissed him back, he put both hands on my breasts,” she says. “I pulled back right away and said, ‘Um, no, what are you doing? This is our first date!’ and I pushed him away.” Janet and her date hadn’t discussed kissing or touching before heading to the parking lot. And although she’d been looking forward to a possible kiss, having her breasts groped le ..read more