My family has a number of communication and anger problems, and recently it feels like fights are breaking out more often. I'm the middle child (19), with an older sister (21) and a younger brother (13). I think that I probably have the most mature emotional relationship with everyone else in the family (as in I don't get pissy at people as often as everyone else, and I'm more helpful than my other siblings around the house). My mom and my sister are both easily angered and can be horribly verbally vicious when they're mad, while my dad and my brother are sort of patronizing and passive aggressive. In fights, my siblings can be really disrespectful at times (for the record, I can be, too), and my mom and dad are often contemptuous/condescending (respectively) of us kids. Compromise/apologies are rare, more often than not fights end by waiting for each other to forget about it instead of anything getting resolved/changed.
I dunno. I tend to avoid conflict by walking away from them, and am often the only one in my family to try to mediate arguments or apologize after one. I'm not saying I'm some kind of saintly martyr or anything, I butt heads with them, too. But people usually come to me to vent/I'm always the only one home enough to hear them rant and all the general bad feeling that comes from family fighting is making me miserable enough to moan on Yahoo!Answers about it, for heaven's sake. I'm kind of sensitive to people getting angry over stupid things, and it stresses me the hell out just to sit back and listen to it all. So what do I do when fights between family members break out?
Sometimes I walk out or tune out in my headphones when it's my sister arguing with my parents (she's an adult and leaving for college in the fall), but I kind of feel a little responsible for my brother since we're closer and I'm going to college soon too; I want him to be chill with my folks. Mostly I just wish I could do something to improve communication and argument-management and general let's-not-drive-each-other-crazy in my family, short of forcing everyone to therapy. Advice? Suggestions? Am I full of myself for thinking that I can help? Thanks for bearing with my emo woe, random people on the internet.
I dunno. I tend to avoid conflict by walking away from them, and am often the only one in my family to try to mediate arguments or apologize after one. I'm not saying I'm some kind of saintly martyr or anything, I butt heads with them, too. But people usually come to me to vent/I'm always the only one home enough to hear them rant and all the general bad feeling that comes from family fighting is making me miserable enough to moan on Yahoo!Answers about it, for heaven's sake. I'm kind of sensitive to people getting angry over stupid things, and it stresses me the hell out just to sit back and listen to it all. So what do I do when fights between family members break out?
Sometimes I walk out or tune out in my headphones when it's my sister arguing with my parents (she's an adult and leaving for college in the fall), but I kind of feel a little responsible for my brother since we're closer and I'm going to college soon too; I want him to be chill with my folks. Mostly I just wish I could do something to improve communication and argument-management and general let's-not-drive-each-other-crazy in my family, short of forcing everyone to therapy. Advice? Suggestions? Am I full of myself for thinking that I can help? Thanks for bearing with my emo woe, random people on the internet.