{"id":17009,"date":"2024-11-22T09:04:08","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T10:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17009"},"modified":"2024-11-22T10:25:14","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T10:25:14","slug":"how-to-avoid-awkward-holiday-conversations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=17009","title":{"rendered":"How to Avoid Awkward Holiday Conversations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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All you need is 30 seconds to prep.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m hosting Thanksgiving for my extended family this year, and I want it to be restorative and fun.<\/p>\n

To set the mood, I\u2019ll have my customary scratch-off tickets at every place setting. And I\u2019ll ask a few questions that people can answer while we eat, like: What\u2019s your unconventional love language?<\/p>\n

My father, for example, will admit that his is giving warnings. If he notices something amiss \u2014 my overflowing gutters, an aching knee I\u2019m ignoring \u2014 he\u2019ll warn that if I don\u2019t take action, I\u2019m \u201cin for a world of hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

For my dad, scaring is caring. \u201cIt\u2019s your funeral,\u201d another one of his favorite phrases, means \u201cI love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m hoping this question leads to interesting conversations among my family members. We\u2019re not likely to fight about politics (my colleague Catherine Pearson wrote about families who are<\/a>). But awkward moments happen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Prepping a few talking points before a holiday gathering may seem forced, said Alison Wood Brooks, a professor at the Harvard Business School and the author of \u201cTalk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves.\u201d But in her research, Dr. Brooks found that just 30 seconds of brainstorming ahead of time improved the flow of conversation.<\/p>\n

I talked to Dr. Brooks and other experts about how to have conversations at your next get-together that are, as Dr. Brooks writes, \u201crich, juicy and fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

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All you need is 30 seconds to prep.I\u2019m hosting Thanksgiving for my extended family this year, and I want it to be restorative and fun.To set the mood, I\u2019ll have my customary scratch-off tickets at every place setting. And I\u2019ll ask a few questions that people can answer while we eat, like: What\u2019s your unconventional love language?My father, for example, will admit that his is giving warnings. If he notices something amiss \u2014 my overflowing gutters, an aching knee I\u2019m ignoring \u2014 he\u2019ll warn that if I don\u2019t take action, I\u2019m \u201cin for a world of hurt.\u201dFor my dad, scaring is caring. \u201cIt\u2019s your funeral,\u201d another one of his favorite phrases, means \u201cI love you.\u201dI\u2019m hoping this question leads to interesting conversations among my family members. We\u2019re not likely to fight about politics (my colleague Catherine Pearson wrote about families who are). But awkward moments happen.Prepping a few talking points before a holiday gathering may seem forced, said Alison Wood Brooks, a professor at the Harvard Business School and the author of \u201cTalk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves.\u201d But in her research, Dr. Brooks found that just 30 seconds of brainstorming ahead of time improved the flow of conversation.I talked to Dr. Brooks and other experts about how to have conversations at your next get-together that are, as Dr. Brooks writes, \u201crich, juicy and fun.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17011,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17009"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17012,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17009\/revisions\/17012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}