Category: Children, family, and relationships

  • Friday night fights: Choosing negotiation instead of persuasion

    Where to go? What to do? Where to eat? At least once a weekend, most of us discuss at least one of these questions with someone else—a friend, a significant other, a spouse. But what happens when we disagree? It’s difficult, but negotiable. To make it negotiable, however, is to understand the difference between negotiation…

  • My toddler STILL won’t eat their dinner! Timing your first offer

    One of my first posts tackled one of the most intractable problems: convincing a toddler to eat dinner. In brief, it suggested making the first offer: approaching the toddler before dinner and offering a cookie if they eventually eat their meal. Not waiting for the meltdown and offering several cookies out of desperation. As I…

  • My family or yours? Using integrative negotiation to allocate holiday time

    With the holidays fast-approaching, many of us face a decision: my family or yours? As anyone who has made this decision can attest, its consequences often stretch far beyond December. Dividing up family time can be contentious. But it’s negotiable! For this post, imagine you’re married or in a serious-enough relationship to worry about the…