> Practical Family Living

Before our oldest daughter was born, my husband and I attended a very thorough and thoughtful parenting class. I remember the speaker saying "conflict is normal and needs to be negotiated." This simple statement was profound for me. Like many people, I don't like conflict. However, we all have to deal with conflict and the closer we are to someone, the more opportunity there is for conflict. The upside to this is that in healthy close relationships there is usually a greater commitment to resolve the conflict.

The first step in resolving conflict is to always take sober stock in yourself, and ask yourself "how did I contribute to this?" and "what could I have done differently?" While it is tempting to point the finger at the other guy, the blame and shame game has never helped nor resolved anything.