how to deal with missing your children when you’re away from them
It was last Monday that it truly hit. The recognition that I was going to be seeing my children for half of their childhood since divorcing. My kitchen clock showed 3.15pm, their school pick-up time. A wash of sadness came over me as I thought about them bundling out of school without me to scoop […]
How To Build Conflict Skills—The Pinch/Crunch Model
Address a pinch before it becomes a crunch. getty We’ve all heard the clichés: Pick your battles. Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Good advice, to a point, but for the conflict-averse, it is possible to be too selective about raising issues. Avoiding conflict can make matters worse—when […]
How to respond to a rude comment from your in-laws
There are many environments where it would benefit you to check any people-pleasing tendencies at the door: work, romantic relationships, even friendships. Holidays at your in-laws’ house is not one of them, says Sara Jane Ho, a Harvard-trained etiquette expert. Ho is the founder of the finishing school Institute Sarita, host of the Netflix show […]
How to make small talk if you are to succeed socially this Christmas
“Hello, lovely to meet you. So, how much do you weigh?” Don’t worry, you needn’t answer unless you wish to. But you’ll agree it’s a useful reminder of how not to make small talk if you want to succeed socially this Christmas. You might assume it’s intuitive to avoid highly personal questions when shooting the […]