How to Survive the Holidays with Dignity
The holidays are hard. Here are realistic ways to get through them while keeping your dignity and sanity intact.
1. Be nice to your fellow travelers in the TSA line.
2. Be really nice to the people who work for the airlines.
3. Actually be nice to the people who are in any service industry.
4. Forget about posting the perfect family photo.
5. Be patient with the family member who works your nerves the most.
6. If your children aren’t being kind to others at a holiday party, remind them that they don’t have to like the person but they can’t make snide comments. They must treat them with worth.
7. If you are anxious about going to holiday events, take a bubble bath first.
8. Don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t sent out your holiday cards yet. There’s no time limit on saying hello.
9. If you read someone’s holiday card and it looks like they have “the perfect life”, just remember how much pressure that person is under to look like they have “the perfect life”.
10. If someone says something offensive, remember you aren’t going to die because you’re offended. But do ask them with as much genuine curiosity as you can, “Help me understand why you just said X (really irritating obnoxious comment).”
11. You don’t have to respect the behavior of the person sitting next to you at the dinner table, but you do have to treat them with dignity.
This originally appeared in our newsletter: Communiquette: A periodic tutorial on the basics of communicating respectfully and honoring each other’s dignity.
