Barbara Pachter
Pachter & Associates

Family disagreements often escalate during the holidays. Ways to keep the peace: Ask yourself whether what is bothering you really matters enough to disrupt the holiday event.

If you feel that you need to confront the situation, keep it as positive as possible — prepare what you want to say ahead of time, and discuss the issue in private, not in front of the whole family.

Personal interviewed Barbara Pachter, business communications and etiquette expert, Pachter & Associates, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and author of The Power of Positive Confrontation (Da Capo). http://www.pachter.com

But now all we hear are snide remarks about Michelle Obama. The women in my family never miss an opportunity to dis Michelle’s hair, weight, attire or what she says, even to how she says it.

It is not lost us that our parents and elders are against a non white being in the White House as President and First Lady.

We discuss it privately. It is strange to refer to your parents and their friends as hypocrites. But suddenly they are openly anti black.

We have can’t help but notice that they can find nothing nice to say about the race since the Obamas got in the White House.

Marianne

In my household the men are so against Obama it really doesn’t matter what he does or says. They just want that black man out of the white house.

Chris