DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My husband and I run an on-line business that personalizes glassware. This is, as you can guess, our busiest time of the year.

We hire extra help from late September through early January. When we bring in the temporary staff, we make it very clear that when you work for us during the holiday season, you are expected to be available at least 40 hours a week, and that those hours can happen evenings and weekends.

This year we have two new kids who work hard when they’re here, but who make snide and snarky comments they think we can’t hear about us. They call us “Grinches” and “Scrooges” and a lot even less flattering names. They also make it clear they feel they’re doing us a favor by doing their jobs. We pay these kids well, better than they would earn working at Target or Walmart, yet they seem so ungrateful.

Do you think we should say something to them, or just let it go and not hire them ever again? --- NOT A SCROOGE

DEAR NOT A SCROOGE: There’s nothing new to the perception that adults over a certain age are hopelessly out of it. Add to that a generation that’s grown up in the age of on-line anonymity and social media-ruled lives, and it’s a small wonder that there are many kids (and adults) who demonstrate a serious lack of commonsense social filters.

What I would do in your situation is to let them know you aren’t so old that you can’t hear them. That may shame them into a little more discretion, but I wouldn’t guarantee it. The one lesson they may learn from — although I doubt they’d ever admit it — is to let them know that because of their attitude, they won’t be welcomed back to work for you and your husband in the future.

Those who can’t learn from their mistakes are bound to repeat them. Hopefully they’ll learn from theirs.

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My two sons were raised in the same church I grew up attending. We didn’t make it to service every week when the boys were growing up, but we have always been active, including the boys doing youth group and youth band.

For the last two years, well before the start of COVID, neither boy has set foot in our or any other church, except when they go with me for Easter and Christmas. I didn’t think I raised a couple of “Chreasters”, but that seems to be what has happened, and it bothers me — a lot.

I have spoken to each of them about this, and the answer they both give is that they still believe in God, they just don’t feel they need to sit in a church to prove it. Do you think I would do more damage pushing them to attend, or do I let it drop for now? --- MISS MY SONS AT CHURCH

DEAR MISS MY SONS AT CHURCH: It’s not at all unusual for people to follow a different religious or spiritual path than the one in which they were raised, especially in their young adult years, and I doubt pushing them in a direction they don’t want to go in will do any good.

For now, enjoy their being with you on the occasions they do attend. It seems to me to demonstrate their respect for both you and your devotion to your faith.

DEAR READERS: I know 2020 has been rough for many. I keep hearing how people feel this is the worst year they’ve ever known, and for the younger generations, this may very well be true.

Something that growing up and growing older does — or should do — is to teach us that it’s beneficial to always keep in mind that bad times do usually get better for most of us. I’ve been around long enough to see some sad and scary days, and to have observed that the people who best weather challenges large and small are those who can look beyond a dark present to a better, brighter future, which they may not even be around to enjoy.

On this holiday set aside for giving thanks, please remember to keep both eyes open for the better days that will come, and a heart grateful for what makes this and every day worth living.

Here’s to a good, safe, and happy Thanksgiving to all!