Dear Abby: Boundaries with in-laws and reviving a long sex life

Two readers sought guidance in a recent Dear Abby advice column on intimate issues that are testing long-term relationships: one newly married woman said her husband’s extended family repeatedly intrudes on her household after the couple moved closer to them, and a man in a decades-long relationship asked how to revive a vanishing sex life with his older partner.

The first correspondent, identifying herself as “Losing It in Alabama,” wrote that she and her husband are celebrating their second anniversary and are otherwise happy, but that his relatives have become a persistent presence since the couple moved into a larger home nearer his family. She described frequent unannounced visits at inconvenient times, a mother who has continued to show up despite being told the couple prefers privacy, and relatives who arrive en masse so that a short visit becomes a takeover. She said attempts to discourage parties or the installation of a backyard pool have been ignored, and that a recent housewarming visit from her own family was overwhelmed when his extended family appeared shortly afterward.

Abigail Van Buren, who writes the column under the Dear Abby byline, advised that the husband...