PROBLEM: My ex-boyfriend broke up with me because (he says) I’m a grammar snob and I kept correcting his grammar. I’m now seeing someone whose sentence construction is appalling, but I resist the urge to say anything. Should I just assume this relationship was doomed from the start?

This is a strange situation. A grammar snob usually finds it impossible to be attracted to people who can’t get their grammar right. (But maybe he’s European and you tell yourself it’s exotic?) Since you’ve obviously got past the appalling sentence construction, why don’t you resist the urge to correct him and quietly judge like the rest of us?

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PROBLEM: I work from home and many of my friends who either don’t work or have flexible hours want to meet in the middle of the day. If I agree, these plans disrupt my work schedule; but when I turn them down, they say, “What’s the point of a work-from-home job if you treat it like a job in office?” Are they right?

I feel you. And it can be worse: Friends barging in (because they happened to take the day off and were in the neighbourhood), taking one look at you staring at the wall (which, in my case, actually means I’m working on the plot of a book), and going, “Oh, great. You’re doing nothing. Now guess what?” Then they proceed to give you work-related gossip or whine about their relationships.

So, yes, I get it. And no, they are not right. But I’m not sure I can advise, since I didn’t exactly deal with it. I just got myself a new set of friends over time – friends who also work from home and are very difficult to meet, and we totally get each other.

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First World Problems is a funny advice column for India’s first world population. Write to Judy (confidentially!) at contact@theswaddle.com if you’ve broken a nail, felt a little blue, yellow or green lately, or had a strange encounter of the any-numbered kind.