<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"We recently received an email from a reader who isn&amp;amp;#8217;t ready to share the details of a family issue with a friend. I think a lot of us can relate. Here is our sweet reader&amp;amp;#8217;s email: I was talking to a friend of mine recently and she asked me some questions about my family. I didn&amp;#x27;t have a problem with her asking this but I had a problem with trying to answer it. There are some issues we have and some of what she asked fell into one of them. So I ended up going around the issue with a lie. I didn&amp;#x27;t want to lie to her because I want to let her understand that I can be trustworthy. My question is would it have been OK for me to tell her what&amp;#x27;s really going on? I&amp;#x27;ve known her for awhile now but it doesn&amp;#x27;t feel like it&amp;#x27;s right for me to do that. I also noticed that although I&amp;#x27;ve known her for awhile, for some reason I freeze up when I&amp;#x27;m on the phone with her. I couldn&amp;#x27;t think of anything to say to her. What can I do to help that issue? And here are my thoughts: Thanks so much for reaching out. It can be especially difficult to let down your guard when it comes to family situations. It&amp;amp;#8217;s OK to tell your friend what&amp;amp;#8217;s going on if you feel comfortable with it. And know that you&amp;amp;#8217;re not required to share every bit of your family history. A good friend will respect your wishes to discuss certain family issues and not others. When you feel the time is right, you can tell your friend the truth. But don&amp;amp;#8217;t pressure yourself into spilling the beans because you think you have to. When you eventually tell her, explain why you weren&amp;amp;#8217;t truthful from the get go. It can be something as simple as &amp;amp;#8220;I don&amp;amp;#8217;t feel comfortable sharing this information with everyone so that&amp;amp;#8217;s why I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t tell you the whole truth.&amp;amp;#8221; We can all be protective of our families so your friend shouldn&amp;amp;#8217;t be surprised when you fill her in. Is it possible you freeze up on the phone because you&amp;amp;#8217;re bracing yourself for more personal questions from her? If so, and if she asks questions you&amp;amp;#8217;re not comfortable answering, tell her as much. If she&amp;amp;#8217;s a good friend, she&amp;amp;#8217;ll realize you&amp;amp;#8217;re not ready to talk about those issues. Also, know that a lot of people aren&amp;amp;#8217;t good on the phone; it can be awkward, you can&amp;amp;#8217;t see the person&amp;amp;#8217;s expressions and short silences and pauses often seem like eternities. As for topics of conversation, why not talk about the things you chat about when you two are face to face? Celebrity gossip, new books, favorite restaurants, mutual friends, etc. If talking on the phone really is weirding you out, you could try just texting or emailing or hanging out in person. What do you think our reader should do? Has someone ever asked you a question you weren&amp;amp;#8217;t comfortable answering? How did you handle it? And how are you when it comes to phone conversations? Would you prefer to IM, email, text or just meet face to face instead? For previous reader&amp;amp;#8217;s dilemmas&amp;amp;#133; * My boyfriend can&amp;amp;#8217;t get over a hookup that happened on a break! * Why you should play hard to get. * My boyfriend knows nothing about me! More Ways to Get Glamour You could win $50,000 just for registering or logging in to Glamour.com! Sign up for Glamour.com&amp;#x27;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters! Add Glamour to your iGoogle homepage. Follow Glamour on Twitter. Photo: Goodshot. Image used for illustrative purposes only."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2010/03/readers-dilemma-i-lied-to-a-fr>