Tips to Avoid COVID Related Family Conflict During the Holidays

Focus on the Family Counselor Wendy Brown has a few tips to avoid COVID related family conflict during the holidays.

With worry over masks, vaccines, social distancing and other COVID concerns, family members may find themselves at odds with each other during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's holiday family gatherings.

Wendy provides encouragement and helpful tips to navigate family conflict whether you are a host or a guest for the family gathering. Are you a host who is more relaxed with COVID boundaries than your guests? Maybe you're more strict on COVID boundaries than your guests. Or maybe your family are the guests who have more relaxed COVID boundaries, but you're going to the home of someone who is more strict. And then your family might be more strict on those boundaries, but you're going to the home of someone who is more relaxed. Either way, Wendy's got you covered.

Through it all she suggests that whether you're the host or the guest, you communicate well and with graciousness, keeping in mind that "a softer answer turns away wrath."

Keeping Wendy's tips in mind this year and you may very well keep COVID-related conflict to a minimum for you and your family during the holidays.

Here are some answers from another Focus on the Family Counselor Tim Sanford on Four Styles of Relational Interaction: What's Healthy, What's Not. You can keep these in mind when interacting with your family members as you navigate possible COVID-Related conflict during the holidays: bit.ly/3l9y90O.

00:00 The Kids are Always Watching
00:52 Navigating COVID Related Family Conflict During the Holidays
01:15 Get in Touch with What You're Feeling
01:42 As the Host, Set Boundaries and Guidelines
02:52 Honor and Respect
03:17 The Strict Host
04:50 The Relaxed Guest
06:42 Reduce the Energy
06:57 The Relaxed Host
08:07 The Strict Guest
11:47 Decrease the Stress - Manage Expectations
12:10 Mary, Joseph and the Brown Family Holiday Expectations
14:14 COVID Doesn't Have to Ruin Everything

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