I am the type of person that would rather walk away than get into a conflict. When it comes to conflict, I always end up being the one that get hurts. The conflict that I have had in my personal life, had to do with my sister-in-law. And it seemed like whenever she was having a bad day, she would come over and start yelling at me or her mother. The one time that I got into it with her, it did not seem to matter what I said, it was an excuse to her. At one point I finally told her, “it doesn’t matter what I say, you are going to say that it is an excuse. I am done.” A time before that, I had just finished doing homework and she was sitting in the kitchen, yelling at her mother, saying stuff about me. She must not have realized that I could hear what she was saying, but I put on my running shoes and she saw me leave the house. I am pretty sure she saw me leave, but after I left, she asked her mom if she had crossed the line. There was also a time that she was laying into me over the phone and I hung up on her because I was done with her yelling at me.
Now I am not sure if the way that I have handled myself by removing myself from in the middle of the conflict is a good thing that I can do or not. A strategy that I could probably try would be to suggest that we both stop the discussion and then come back to it when both of us can discuss it in a calm manner. By doing this strategy, we can both feel like we are each being heard. This approach also keeps one person from saying something that will either put a strain on the relationship or will be something that will be regretted later.
I am opening up this now to my colleagues: How can I handle this situation better should I find myself in the middle of it again? What strategies would you suggest I do next time?