DEAR ABBY: I strongly disagree with your advice to "Lonely Husband in Oklahoma." You advised him to get a puppy for his stepdaughter so she would sleep in her own bed instead of her mother's bed.
Abby, a puppy is a lifelong commitment that should never be entered into as a solution for a family problem. Please don't recommend that a puppy be used as a kind of animated teddy bear. A puppy is a live animal that requires attention and care, and the girl is too young to take responsibility for that animal's emotional and physical welfare for the entire life of the dog.
When a child sleeps with a parent to the detriment of the parent's marriage, it is a red flag that the family dynamics are askew. Sometimes parents who are divorced or in a bad relationship use their children as a surrogate mate. Other times, children in a one-parent home feel powerful and secure sleeping with the parent and are loathe to surrender the power to a new husband they may perceive as an intruder. I recommend "Lonely Husband" and his wife get into a program of marriage counseling, and perhaps family counseling that includes the stepdaughter. -- SIDNEY LONG, NEWPORT, R.I.
DEAR SIDNEY: You are absolutely right. Mea culpa. (You're the cat's meow!)