DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I am nearly 29 years old, but I look 20, and people often treat me like a kid.

I work in the career guidance office of a university, and part of my job is to make presentations to groups of soon-to-be graduating students on topics like dressing for success and tips for interviewing.

It’s demoralizing to me to be treated with disrespect and sometimes outright rudeness during my presentations by people who think I’m younger than them and don’t know what I’m talking about. I’ve been successfully out in the workforce for years now and I take pains to dress professionally and project what I consider is a professional image, but nothing seems to work. What more can I do? --- BABY-FACED COUNSELOR

DEAR BABY-FACED COUNSELOR: If you haven’t already, it’s time you reach out to either your boss or a more experienced coworker to see if they have some tips for taming an unruly audience. Perhaps they could either observe one of your presentations, or you could sit in on one of theirs.

You also need to accept your listeners believing they already know what you’re trying to tell them ─ whether they do or not. Being a know-it-all is a perennial occupational hazard for college students.

Finally, give yourself credit for reaching those in your audience who know how to behave like grown-ups and who are actually hoping to benefit from the information you’re sharing. Like the loudmouths, they’re out there too.

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: There is an older woman who lives in the house across the street from my boyfriend. I know I’m not being paranoid, because my boyfriend and a lot of other people have commented on how this woman is always peeking out the window to see who is coming and going. She waits until she sees my boyfriend or one of the other neighbors heading out to get their mail and she nearly runs out of her house to “get her mail” too. Then she starts a conversation with whoever was really getting their mail, asking all kinds of questions about what’s happening in their house or with their family, or in our case, between my boyfriend and me.

I don’t want to sound like a crank myself, but how do we get this woman to butt out? --- NEED SOME PRIVACY

DEAR NEED SOME PRIVACY: There have always been and always will be plenty of what my mother used to politely refer to as “curious” neighbors in this world. In some cases, it isn’t so bad having someone keeping an eye on the neighborhood, but when it begins to feel creepy or intrusive, that’s another story.

The next time your boyfriend is approached, he could try changing the to a less personal, safe subject that doesn’t give her any openings to pry. If that doesn’t work, the next step would be to flat out, but politely, tell her he likes to keep his private life private. And if he’s still getting the third degree, he might want to turn the tables on her and come up with a very personal question to ask her about her own private matters.

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: At the end of the summer I started dating a man eighteen years older than I am. He’s never been married, so there aren’t any exs or kids to deal with. Still, I get ragged on by my friends and so does he by his. What do we do to get them to back-off? --- THE YOUNGER WOMAN

DEAR YOUNGER WOMAN: Just about every relationship has built-in challenges. What makes or breaks it is how you both deal with those challenges. If you’re cool with the age gap, and he’s cool with the age gap, then what others think and say becomes much less important.

However, in addition to socializing as a couple, I would strongly advise you to take care to separately carve out time with your own sets of friends. Everyone needs a chance to “act their age,” and being with peers provides that opportunity, and demonstrates that you’re each comfortable in both worlds.