DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My husband and I retired late in 2021. We are lucky to be comfortable enough between our pensions and Social Security benefits.

Our son’s in-laws are still both working, being a few years younger than us, and besides that, they make a sh

load of money. He’s some kind of investment analyst and she’s a consultant for NYC hospitals, so it’s no surprise they can afford to shop where they do. We shop at Target and Penney’s, they go to Saks and Bergdorf’s.

Our daughter-in-law is absolutely terrific and totally down-to-earth. She never makes my husband and me feel like we’re any less important than her parents. But we feel like we can’t compete with her parents for baby clothes and other things for our new granddaughter.

I think what we get is perfectly fine, but I also can’t help but think about what else we can do for her in the future. We will never be able to give her a big college fund like the one already started by her other grandparents. They’ll be giving her cruises and we’ll be offering to take her to the Bronx Zoo. You see where we’re going here?

How can we possibly compete with the richer, younger grandparents? --- CAN’T COMPETE

DEAR CAN’T COMPETE: Why do you want to compete?

You shouldn’t feel like you’re in a contest for your granddaughter’s love. If you’re the grandparents who take her to the zoo rather than to the Caribbean, there’s no reason to think you’re shortchanging her. The time you give her is what’s of true value.

And if her mom isn’t into the world of higher-end merchandise, then that may very well be how she’ll raise her daughter.

As long as you’re willing to be in your granddaughter’s life and help her understand that she’s an important and well-loved part of yours, that’s what’ll matter to her. That’s how together you’ll help make the memories you’ll all share and treasure.

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My wife is what my mom calls “a health nut.” She is fit, eats all the right stuff, and practices mindfulness every day.

She is also what I consider addicted to OTC drugs. It isn’t only that she takes a lot of vitamins, which she does. But our bathroom counter is covered with things she takes or uses all the time.

She has eyedrops for allergy eyes and allergy pills, even though I never saw her have any kind of allergy. She takes omega-3, fiber pills, iron, and at least two different multi-vitamins daily. She tells me some are good for her skin, hair, and nails. Some help her concentrate and not gain weight, and a bunch of other things.

I sometimes worry she’s taking too much and too many of these different pills, and that some of them can hurt her if she keeps using them for too long.

When I suggested she talk to her primary care doctor about it all, she told me she always looks everything up to make sure what she’s taking is safe, but that doesn’t make me completely comfortable.

Don’t you think someone should check with their doctor to make sure they’re not messing themselves up with too many OTC drugs? --- JUST WANT HER TO CHECK

DEAR JUST WANT HER TO CHECK: Just about everyone uses OTC drugs at some point, and there are those people for whom they’re part of a daily routine.

In the case of your wife, since she’s taking a variety of different ones on a regular basis, I agree with you that she should run them by her doctor. Iron supplements alone, for instance, can interfere with other meds, especially prescription drugs.

It’s a good thing your wife researches an OTC before she starts using it, but getting a better-informed opinion could help prevent potential problems down the road.

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I have been having nightmares about what it will be like when I see my ex when I get back to college later in August.

We had a good thing, until we didn’t, and when we split up two weeks before the end of the spring term. It was an extremely bad breakup and he made it clear he would not be happy to see me with another guy.

One of the biggest reasons we broke up was because he was so jealous. If I even just mentioned another guy, like someone in one of my study groups, or someone from an old class I happened to run into on or off campus, he would start to grill me about the guy and ask if I liked him or something.

It got bad enough that I withdrew from the summer session classes I had enrolled in because I felt like I had to put some distance between the two of us for a few weeks. He has a campus job and was going to be there all summer, so I would have had little to no chance of avoiding him. It isn’t that big a campus.

I know he would not try to do anything to physically hurt me, but he can be cruel, and he has a lot of friends who I’m sure he has told all about how “horribly” I treated him. (Like I say, it’s a small campus!)

I don’t want to hide from him, so how do I handle being back in the same place as my ex and his friends? --- WORRIED ABOUT RETURNING TO SCHOOL

DEAR WORRIED ABOUT RETURNING TO SCHOOL: You mentioned that your ex has a lot of friends. Hopefully you’ve made a few of your own at school, and it may be wise to let them know you could use a little moral and practical support in establishing buffers between yourself and the people you worry about encountering.

Just for a bit, it could be both helpful and advisable to not go alone to hangouts you’ve shared with your ex, at least until the awkwardness of getting through the first encounters with him and his crowd declines. That should naturally happen as you both move on in your respective lives.