Dealing With Conflict-What Would You Do?

Conflict happens every day in our lives. Whether it be at school, in the workplace or at home we are going to experience some amount of conflict. I believe my job and my life are surrounded with conflict because of the nature of my job and the some decisions that I have made in life. My father who is terminally ill with cancer is not able to take care of himself any more but unfortunately my mother and the nurse aid does not seem to see eye to eye on how to take care of him. My mother believes she knows what she is doing and unfortunately she is not right at all times. I often find myself standing in the middle of the conflicting arguments and acting as a mediator. I find this very stressful at times because I have to leave what I am doing and journey to St. Elizabeth to ensure that the nurse does not leave the job because this would definitely make the situation worse for me. My teenage daughter and her father sometimes end up having conflicts because I find that they just do not take the time out to listen to each other. Again, I find myself playing mediator. I have learned to deal with conflicting situations throughout my life. Often I wait until the dust has settled and then approach the persons involved in the conflicts. Some of the strategies that I have used is to listen carefully to the persons involved, speak kind words and softly, smile, hug, distract the person with some physical activity such as exercise. I tend to do this with my daughter. When I am exercising I ask her to join me and then I seize the moment to talk to her about the conflicts. I also distract my husband by showing interest in his work, talking to him on a one on one basis. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the different situations but I speak to myself and ask myself questions such as “Judy if you were in this situation how would you be wanted to treated? I try not to undermine the parties involved but to initiate respect at all levels. I have also had conflicts especially in the work place because the job involves some amount of team work and sometimes persons just do not do their share of the work which impacts on our targets. I have had to take blame for persons for their lack of participation and just for a quiet life I sometimes have to apologize for things that I am not guilty of. I strongly believe that violence does not solve any problem. I believe in the scripture that is takes from the Bible in the book of Proverbs chapter 15 vs 1: “Soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger.”