With the holidays coming up, people all around the country face the anxiety of enduring awkward family gatherings. Avoiding certain risky conversation topics can be like navigating a proverbial minefield, so I thought it would be apt to offer a few suggestions on the safest topics to bring up around the table.
First of all, let’s get the obvious out of the way: politics. Talking politics with your family members is a great way to calmly and rationally open both parties up to seeing things from a different point of view. With the stress of the holidays and entertaining guests, people are in a really great mindset to have their views challenged.
Perhaps you came to college with different political views than you have now — that’s great! Bring up all of your changed opinions to family both nuclear and distant.
Health care and the new tax plan are both hot topics as of late, so try to brush up on them before you head back home. However, in the interest of maintaining consistent views, only read from sources that lean towards your own political bias. Otherwise, things are sure to get confusing and conflicting. Is this the climate changing? Who knows? The science is still out on that, but let’s gab about it in between the turkey serving!
Next up, your relationship status can be rife with fun subtopics. Are you a single senior? A freshman in a serious relationship? Vice versa? Either way, your family will be sure to ask. I like to type up a pre-prepared questionnaire of certain personal questions I’ve been dying to answer, just so that I know everything will be covered.
Most of the time, your love life is your own personal concern, but when it comes to holidays with your family, expect those barriers to be barreled through! You will be questioned!
Thanksgiving can be a huge rush as far as preparing food goes. If you have a larger family, then a lot of pressure can be placed on the people in charge of cooking to get food out quickly and deliciously. So where do you come in here, you lazy college student, you? Well, here’s the thing: all people work well under pressure, that’s just science.
So you should take it upon yourself to grab a whistle, get in that kitchen and lay down the hammer. Maybe you aren’t personally making any dishes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t push everyone else to roast that turkey like there’s no tomorrow. Someone needs to be in charge of quality assurance around here!
And it doesn’t just end with preparation. Once that food is on the table, maybe you notice the mashed potatoes could’ve used some more mashing mention it loudly and publicly, or you’ll just end up dealing with it all over again next year!
