A diologue about the necessity of family attachment in a human life
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Answer:
Dialogue is the process of talking through topics to build shared meaning.
Family dialogue involves all parties being fully engaged and talking through a topic.
Goals of healthy family conversations should be to understand each other's perspectives, build intimacy in relationships, and align around interests and outcomes.
Most skiers know they aren't ready to tackle black-diamond runs on a mountain without developing the necessary skills. Families faced with hard and often complex conversations around money, wealth, and estate planning benefit from similar wisdom.
Developing the dialogue skills to navigate challenging family topics requires intentional practice at every stage of life. Without these skills, your family will avoid necessary life conversations or have them in a way that has the potential to harm relationships.
Dialogue is the process of talking through topics to build shared meaning. In this process, families aim to understand each other's perspectives, build intimacy in relationships, and align around interests and outcomes. In dialogue, individuals avoid problematic modes of communication, such as telling people what to do or trying to get their way.
Just like skiing, dialogue is a skill-based sport, and there are many opportunities throughout life for you and your children to practice by tackling easier, bunny-slope topics. Start by talking through college spending money, buying a car, or gifting to buy a house. Then keep practicing the conversations as the topics get harder.
Through time, your family can develop the skills you need to talk about anything. You will be ready when it comes time for black-diamond conversations about topics like fairness, entitlement, integrating children's spouses into the family, and the complexities of elder care or wealth transitions.
To get you started with your practice, here's a quick overview of the 10 Skills of Dialogue we teach at the Center for Family Engagement.*