Preventing Arguments

Want to know the tricks for keeping confrontations to a minimum? Try this: Instead of jumping straight to playing detective when your child comes home from school or a party, ask open-ended, opinion-eliciting questions. It will help your teen stay in the conversation if they know you’re also interested in what went right vs. digging around to find out if anything went wrong. It’s also okay to break up difficult conversations into smaller, less stressful chunks by suggesting that you step back, think, and regroup later. Even better, find teachable moments to get your thoughts across before situations occur.

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