Dear Abby: I am an 11-year-old girl who loves going shopping and doing various stuff with my mom. But when we go to the mall or stop for lunch and she hears a song she likes, she’ll start singing to it. And if we’re standing up, she even dances to it a little. I have tried telling her to stop because she’s embarrassing me, but all she says is, “No one is looking, honey.” She also does it at home in front of my friends when I play my iPod. Any suggestions?

—Blushing in San Francisco

Dear Blushing: Your problem is one that has been shared by generations of young people. You have reached an age when image is becoming important to you, and you’re afraid that your mother’s behavior will reflect badly on you. It won’t. Rather than be embarrassed, please consider how lucky you are to have an upbeat, music-loving mother with a sense of rhythm and some knowledge of the lyrics.

Afraid to tell truth

Dear Abby: After 30 years of marriage I still don’t know how to tell my wife she can’t cook. I came home tonight to find an expensive piece of meat I had been looking forward to eating reduced to shoe leather.

I never encouraged my wife to cook, and usually the pressure of work distracts her. But she has been “surprising” me more often with “delicacies” on her days off. I dread retirement. How can I nicely ask her not to go to the trouble of preparing these disastrous dishes?

—Wants to Be Tactful

Dear Wants: Because you can’t bring yourself to tell your wife her cooking skills need improvement, allow me to offer an alternative. Sign the two of you up for nighttime cooking classes so she can brush up on her culinary skills and, if necessary, you can take over the role of family chef after you retire. Bon appetit!

Write Dear Abby at

www.DearAbby.com

.