DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I am afraid my husband will take it the wrong way, but I really, really do not want to leave our four-month old baby for the weekend so we can have our anniversary trip as we have had the past four years.

It is our fifth, and my husband wants to make a big deal over it, but I honestly would just rather spend it at home with our baby and have our parents come over for a nice dinner.

I have not told my husband about this plan to have a different celebration, just this year. He is a very romantic man, and he puts so much into our anniversary get-aways. I also know I could use a little break from being Mommy, but I am just not ready yet.

I am not being unreasonable and selfish, am I? --- NOT READY TO LEAVE MY BABY

DEAR NOT REAY TO LEAVE MY BABY: No, I don’t think you’re being unreasonable or selfish.

You and your husband are still adjusting to one of the biggest changes you’ll experience in your life. For you, the way to make that adjustment is to keep close to your baby. For your husband, it may be to carve out a little time for you as a couple, which is also entirely understandable.

Perhaps you could find a compromise this year and either take a day trip for just the two of you, or maybe even simply a special dinner out at a restaurant with linen tablecloths, fancy place settings, delicious food, and excellent service.

Either of those options would give you a chance to be together without the distractions of taking care of an infant.

It won’t be a getaway on the scale of what you’ve had before, but at least it would be something to help make your fifth anniversary memorable.

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: My wife says I should leave it alone, but the guy who lives in the next townhouse over from us has his huge Trump 2024 sign in the front yard and a giant “Trump Was Right About Everything” banner hanging up over his back door, which we can’t help seeing whenever we’re out in our yard. He has it up all the time, not just when he’s having what he told me are his “PAC” meetings.

When he’s having his meetings I don’t want my kids out there, and since his house seems to be their designated meeting spot, they meet there every Saturday afternoon and the meetings run until 10 or 11 at night. And we’re talking 25-30 people, at the least, always spilling out into the tiny backyard, and many of them stay overnight.

Plus there are only so many visitor spots in our court, and his “guests” take them all up, so if anyone else in the court has visitors, they have to drive around the development to find spots. I’ve heard other neighbors complain about that as well.

Generally speaking, I am not a political person, but I have very specific views on the whole Trump movement and can’t stomach their kind of thinking. I don’t go out of my way to engage with them, but do you think I should be able to say something to this guy about his Saturday “PAC” meetings? --- NOT A GOOD NEIGHBOR

DEAR NOT A GOOD NEIGHBOR: I certainly appreciate your frustration. Politics aside, I imagine it’s no fun having a regularly scheduled meeting of at least a couple dozen people taking place practically in your backyard each week.

However, a direct approach may not be your best bet, especially if you have an HOA or other organization in your townhouse community that’s designed to handle situations like this. If you do, check the bylaws to see if there’re any restrictions against such gatherings and guest parking monopolizing. In the case that there are, your next step would be to appeal to the HOA to shut down or limit the meetings.

My guess is that since other neighbors are also being inconvenienced by the parking situation, you wouldn’t be alone in making an appeal or lodging a complaint at least about that.

If an HOA isn’t an option, you could investigate local ordinances to see if your neighbor’s group violates of any zoning or parking restrictions. In that case, you’d have the law on your side, which ought to have more weight than making a direct request on your own.

DEAR SOMEONE ELSE’S MOM: I don’t have anything personally against the young man at all. As a matter of fact, I think he is a good guy. But my granddaughter started dating a cop she met through a class they were both taking, and her daddy and her brothers don’t treat him very nice.

You could say our family history with law enforcement has not been a happy one. My son says he feels like the man is checking everyone and everything out whenever he visits his house and it makes him uneasy.

I try what I can to smooth the way for my granddaughter and her new man. He seems alright to me, but I am not the one who has a history with the law.

She asked me if I think it’s worth it, this new relationship she is in. He seems to make her happy. But I know her daddy’s feelings about the man, and I have started asking around for advice to give my granddaughter about her and her boyfriend. --- COP SEEMS OKAY

DEAR COP SEEMS OKAY: If your granddaughter and her boyfriend are forming a strong bond, it would be a shame for her to turn away from him just to please her father and brothers.

Based on my observations of several police officers I’ve known, they prefer to leave the job behind them at the end of their workday, just like most people.

There is perhaps an element of being more on call than is common in other professions, but if your family members have no reason to fear a lawman at the moment, they should have no reason to resent your granddaughter’s boyfriend, so long as he treats her with respect.

Hopefully, if the relationship progresses, your son and the others who object to the new man will have opportunities to realize he’s the decent person you perceive him to be.

In the meantime, your continued support of your granddaughter’s choice could play a big part in her decision on whether or not to give up her love interest simply to make her father and brothers less uncomfortable with someone in his line of work.