Five Tips to Reduce Conflict

[Andrew1]

Did you spot our top tips to surviving the summer holidays earlier on this month? If you did, we hope these Top Tips helped to make the summer holidays that bit more enjoyable for both young people and parents/carers. But what can you do if things start to get a bit heated? Whether you are a young person or a parent/carer, how can you help to calm things down?

I’ve listed 5 tips to help de-escalate family conflict:

1. Listen to what the other person is saying – resist the temptation to interrupt and give advice.
2. You may see that someone is upset or angry but ask them how they are feeling anyway.
3. Apologise for the part that you played in the conflict – it’s rarely just one person that causes an argument.
4. Be calm and non-confrontational, both with the way that you speak and with your body language.
5. Be future focused and be willing to move on. This moves the focus from blaming each other to creating solutions

These five tips may seem to be common sense but used correctly they will make a difference.

Warning! In the heat of the moment these tips can be challenging to carry out but are worth the effort.

Happy holidays!

[Alan]

Sometimes when we are on holiday we can also be lulled into a false sense of security in the sense that due to the excitement and the different routine we may actually get along with our family better, free from the stresses of every day life. It’s when we come home, back to bills, back to school, back to the grind that we fall back into old habits and forget that we just had a great two weeks together!

Trying to remember what it was on holiday that made us get along so well…Not being glued to a screen, talking more, doing enjoyable and new things together and trying to ensure these have a place in our day to day relationship back home might just mean the holiday never ends…Maybe!

[craigmillard1]

Spending time together doing something all enjoy can reduce the chance of flare ups.
Number 2 is great . we don’t ask this enough and really mean it…me to.
Apologising … its rarely just one person…they can have a jolly good try though :}…maybe until we understand our self, our own triggers and become better placed to move away from the conflict…which yes , we are usually entwined in at some level, it seems. .
Apologising can be so hard as it can seen as giving ground when we are in fixed positions. it so liberating though when we get better at it. Its a journey :}