Please send your questions for publication to prudence@slate.com.

Note: For reasons that elude Prudie, seemingly half of our hemisphere wrote in response to the letter from "Not OK." Since all the letters said essentially the same thing, let the following one stand for them all. And, uh, thank you.

—Prudie, amazedly

Prudie,
I would suggest, "I appreciate your cooperation," or a simple, "Thank you." No need to imply that it's not a problem, just express gratitude for the person's willingness to address the problem. After all, it's not unlikely when one makes such a call that the answer will be, "Blow it out your ear." Sincere willingness to fix the problem by the offender merits the complainer's thanks.

—Best,
Ann P.

Dear Pru,
I'm 12 years old and my mom believes in me, but my boyfriend is nudging me to do it with him. He says if I don't he'll dump me. He is the cutest guy in school. What should I do? I like him and am curious about sex, but I know I'm not old enough yet—but if I don't go along he'll dump me. What should I do? Bye.

—Afraid To Be Dumped

Dear Af,
Since you're asking Prudie, there's hope you will take her advice. You are completely right about not being old enough. A 12-year-old girl having sex would be like baking a cake for four minutes: not even close to being ready. You won't know what you're doing, it won't feel good, and he'll probably drop you anyway. That your selfish turkey of a boyfriend is saying do it or get dumped tells you a lot—but at least you know how he thinks. Prudie hopes you dump him and then, instead of looking for cute, look for smart and nice. It is never too early to get one's priorities in order. In your case right now, playing hard to get is way more cool than playing fast and loose. And the following letter may interest you.

—Prudie, protectively

Dear Prudence,
My 16-year-old daughter just found out she's pregnant. The father is a 24-year-old loser. In the great land of the Mormons (we are from Utah), they enacted a law that allows this person to have sex with my daughter lawfully. (State law says that he would have to be 10 years older before it would be breaking the law.) This all started in July. I tried to forbid her to see him, but that was driving her to think of running away. I thought maybe if I permitted her to see him she would get bored and move on. I thought wrong. I have tried to reason with her, and even had an agreement with him before this happened that there would be no sex if I allowed her to date him. I guess what I am asking is: Do you have any suggestions that would help me to get her to see what a loser he is and that keeping this baby would be a bad mistake? I would love to get her to see that there are many wonderful couples out there who want a baby and cannot have one.