Dear Rocky,

The past presidential election was pretty polarizing, and a lot of my family members have completely opposite views regarding it! I just want to have a peaceful and fun time with my relatives during the holidays, but I’m not sure how to keep everyone civil. How can I handle my family’s conflicting opinions?

– Holiday Peacekeeper

Dear Holiday Peacekeeper,

It sounds like you’ve got a lot on your plate for the holidays, and it’s not just food. Keeping things civil from day to day can be hard enough, and adding more relatives and family friends into the mix can make it worse. However, don’t feel like this has to be only your job.

I would recommend talking to your parents or another family member who can be trusted about remaining neutral about politics around everyone and get them to help you. Explain that you just want to have a good time with your family, and that you’re afraid that this year’s political climate might ruin that. Then, I would try to come up with a plan of action if anything about politics gets brought up.

Some things you can do are to change the subject to another interesting topic, or you or someone else could gently suggest talking about something else, reminding whoever it is you’re talking to that it might not be the best idea to bring up politics.

If your family is less serious, you could come up with a word to shout out any time controversial topics are brought up! It can keep the mood light and take a lot of stress off of you, since everyone could say it and it’s not only your job.

Also, keep in mind that it isn’t your responsibility to monitor what people do or do not say. It’s your holiday season, too, and you deserve to enjoy it.

Good luck!

Meep Meep,

Rocky