How Can Conflicts Best Be Managed?
Choose Your Battles Carefully Jennifer, age 12, wears her hair in a ponytail a lot of the time. Her mother wants her to do her hair differently. It’s creating friction between Jennifer and her mother. First of all, consider what you hope the outcome would be for discussing the conflict you are concerned about. Is the issue important enough to work on, to spend the time on, or to even risk further damage to the relationship? Like two children fighting over a half stick of gum, as adults we sometimes become “bent out of shape” over issues not major enough to justify the conflict created. While parental guidance is extremely important to helping young people become productive and healthy adults, we need to decide which issues are really important and need to be resolved, and which ones, such as the ponytail issue above, may not be worth disrupting family harmony. Remain Calm We cannot solve problems when we are angry. Conflicts can only be managed when both or all participants are calm en
