Figured out a hack to stop my uncle from bringing up politics at every holiday dinner

Last Thanksgiving I finally got fed up. My uncle starts every meal with something about the news. I tried everything. Changing the subject. Asking him to pass the rolls. Nothing worked. So I brought a list of 10 random trivia questions about local history from our town. Printed them on a single sheet. When he started in on taxes I pulled it out and said hey I was reading this article about the old mill fire in 1923. He got curious. We spent 45 minutes talking about that instead. Anybody else ever try something like that to steer a conversation?

2 comments

2 Comments

norag6610d ago

Did you hear about that study that says changing topics works best with older folks?

betty_palmer10d ago

Wait, does "changing topics" mean steering conversations or interrupting them?