The Advice Diva: Got gripes about kin? Keep them to yourself.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Dear Advice Diva: I don't get along that well with my parents and often talk badly about them to my boyfriend. He has met them and doesn't particularly like them, either. What bothers me is that he openly cuts them down in front of other people. I feel like I can't yell at him because he shares my opinion, but shouldn't certain things be off-limits? I feel like telling him to pick on his own family.

_M.L.

Dear M.L.: Topics of conversation are off-limits only if you make them so. The unfortunate thing about speaking ill of anyone _ in addition to sounding like a petty gossip or spoiled brat _ is that you generate negative energy that reinforces the very …