Reply to How to get inlaws to say what they really think?

Forum Index » Family Relationships

Reply to "How to get inlaws to say what they really think?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]My wife's family is like this.  You have to change the way you communicate.  Emphasize the parts that are important to you.  I think of it like communicating with a toddler.  You give them a set of acceptable choices.

For example, when dealing with family holidays, you say "I'd like to bring something for the meal.  Would you prefer a side dish or a dessert?"  When there is something you want, like the WWII uniform,  you say "If you are not going to keep this item for yourselves, we would love to have it for our home."  This says that if they want to keep it, they can, but if they are planning on giving it away, you'd like it to come to you.  For gifts, get them gift cards for places they shop and try to keep an eye out for new acquisitions (especially from the place they shopped) to get ideas for what they'd like.  If you can't figure it out, keep with the gift cards or let your husband do the gift shopping.

You cannot make people who are indirect communicators into direct communicators.  You can only adapt how you communicate with them.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics