DEAR ABBY: I am a divorced mother of two teenagers. I’ve been seeing my boyfriend, “Sean,” for almost five years, and when the pandemic started, he moved in with us. I am supposed to share custody of my teens with their father, alternating weeks. However, his job requires travel, and the kids are with me more often than not, with little to no notice. They are also reaching an age where they don’t really want to go to their dad’s all the time.
This has caused some tension with my boyfriend. He feels we never get “alone time” anymore. He then withholds affection from me, as if I’ve done something wrong by having my kids. Since he moved in, our sex life has dwindled to almost nonexistent. He refuses to be intimate when the kids are home, yet he hasn’t made the most of the “alone time” we do have when the kids aren’t here. He usually goes to bed early, without so much as a goodnight kiss. Or he’ll go out on weekend days and not include me.
