How To Tell Your Family You Won’t Be Home For Holidays
As we approach 2020 end of year holidays, be it Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years, consider the Coronavirus risk you pose to your family members, especially if they are seniors or have risk conditions. Don’t have regrets later.
If you decide to not visit, then be more present virtually. Remember that when you aren’t present in person, you need to overcommunicate your emotions since you don’t have the same connection through eye contact, touch, body language, nodding, and facial expressions.
Enhance your virtual conversations by using more emphatic words that communicate emotion, by accentuating your intonation, and by using expressions to show you are listening.
Here’s 3 strategies you can use to bridge the communication gap and influence your loved ones in these emotional hard conversations:
• Get them to empathize with you
• Make it about you, not them
• Make it about the long-term benefits vs. short term pains
Here’s 6 steps to break the negative news that you’re not visiting your esteemed family members and friends during this holiday season in a warm, caring, and loving way:
1. Reaffirm the relationship value
2. Be direct about your decisions without hesitation
3. Say why based on your feelings or concerns
4. Offer an alternative
5. Reaffirm the relationship value
6. Paint a brighter future
Over the holidays, choose to have both safety and connection.
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