If you’re meeting up with family for Thanksgiving this week, you may be worried about certain topics of discussion with your relatives.

Maybe you’re afraid your relatives will ask you about personal details that you may not be too eager to disclose: Are you in a relationship? Are you ready to graduate? What are you going to do after graduation? Do you have a job? How are you doing financially? 

Or maybe you don’t share the same political views as your family and are hoping to avoid a fight by avoiding politics as a topic altogether. 

As an editorial board, we don’t care if you tell your grandmother all about your personal life or not, but we do believe that it’s important to not blatantly dodge political conversation just to avoid a disagreement. 

Today, it seems that almost every conversation that has to do with politics is controversial. Whether it be our president’s tweeting habits or public reactions to tragedy, gun laws, healthcare, tax reform, climate change, abortion laws, etc., it seems like everyone has an opinion on every topic and it’s very likely that not everyone in your extended family shares the same opinions on every topic. 

However, there are ways of discussing controversial topics with your family in a mature manner in order to avoid ruining Thanksgiving dinner. 

Have an educated opinion

In order to have a worth-while political conversation, you need to know what you’re talking about. Research the issue before you form an opinion and be ready to use that research during your discussion. You don’t need to have a folder of news articles on hand to whip out during dessert, but having a few facts to back up your opinion won’t hurt. 

Take a stance – or don’t

Although every conversation may seem like it is going to be controversial, that doesn’t mean it has to be. If you don’t have an opinion on a matter, it isn’t required for you to choose a side, in fact there doesn’t even need to be sides. Don’t argue just for the sake of arguing. 

Listen and maybe even learn

If you do have a stance on an issue, let your family know what it is. But, when you’re done explaining your stance, listen to the other sides. The saying “there are no wrong opinions” applies here. Don’t discuss politics in order to change your relatives’ minds on an issue, but to learn why they think differently than you. Who knows? You may even learn something.