Personal Narrative: Resolving Conflict

Growing up, I noticed, when approached with conflict, my sisters and my mother would often state that they did not want to talk about it or would simply leave the room. I now have a phrase for this: the exit response. For us, the exit response was always temporary. If the problem was serious, it would eventually be brought back up; if it wasn’t, then things usually got better on its own.
While my dad is often the first to use the voice response, I have noticed that my dad often chooses the loyalty response, too. Anytime he and my mother are arguing he would still try to keep things around the house and between him and her going as they usually do. Usually, when my dad chose this response the problem got better on its own over time. A majority of the time it works out okay, and this is a response I’ve noticed that I take often. Overall, I usually point out that there is a problem, but I try to avoid it.
I remember one instance with a friend of mine, where we were stuck on the side of the road and got into an argument. She outright stated the problem between us at the time, and I brushed her off by saying I didn’t want to discuss it then. This may have been due to how I see my family resolve conflict; we have always walked away from problems for a little while.
Family likely has an impact on how we respond to conflict for a few reasons. For …show more content…
At least with an exit response it is clear that there is a problem. With the loyalty response, there is always the possibility that it can be brought back up and there is someone is still trying to keep the relationship healthy. I think a new conflict is created when a person denies that there is any conflict in the first place. Seeing my friends neglect conflict has actually influenced me to respond by voicing that there’s a problem much more often than I used to. If my friends won’t at least acknowledge the problem, then I try