Credit: Artem Kniaz from Unsplash

How to enjoy the holidays throughout all generations

Picture this. It’s your holiday dinner! Your whole family has managed to come, and things are looking pretty good. However, your strict republican grandmother has just started complaining about politics, and your liberal cousin is starting to roll her eyes. The twin 4-year-olds begin to shoot mashed potatoes across the room, and your parents begin to fight with your uncle about mask mandates. Catastrophe.

How do you fix this? Good question. This short article will walk you through some tips.

1. Topics to avoid: politics, politics, COVID-19 policies, climate change, politics, and any highly contested and/or politicized issue in the news. These are all too dangerous of topics and it’s easy for fights to spring up about these.
2. Topics to talk about: weather, sports, neutral TV shows, and any common interest (we’ll talk about this in a second)
3. Find a common interest with the people around you. Politics is relevant to both of you, but is not a common interest. Also, even if you’re super into COVID-19 policy, if it’s on the topics to avoid list, ideally don’t do it… Stick to neutral and positive topics. Even if you have the same beliefs on a topic, there could be nuances in either of your beliefs which can cause issues!
4. Bond over food! Food is delicious and brings humans together. While you can only talk about food for so long, it’s a useful topic as a way to get people to warm up and smile.
5. Be patient and understand that different generations have different perspectives. Your grandmother, who might have lived through more conflicts than you have, probably has a different perspective around combat. That’s okay. It’s been shaped by her world, and as has yours.

Another question that may be on your mind is how to talk to your relatives about health. We can help with this too! Whether it’s about physical or mental health, and whether it may be in the realm of COVID or a recent diagnosis, we’re here to help :).

We’d recommend, for this, to, first off, be patient. Any health topic is typically scary for people, especially if they’re on the older side of things. It’s far easier to be patient right off the bat, then to get into a worry-based fight with relatives. Second off, let them voice their concerns (and really do listen) before talking. That way, they’ll feel supported and like their concerns matter. From there, give them the advice you have, after you’ve asked if they want advice. Sometimes people do need to vent. Make sure they know you’re always there for them, because sometimes people just need support.

We hope that, using these tips, you can have a better and more friendly holiday dinner! We at Biotein care about the health and wellness of all ages, especially during critical moments like these.