We all have family members we don’t like and my family is no exception. The members of our extended family are conniving, manipulating and display psychotic tendencies. Whist this is normal, when we share shared assets, we have to deal with them and communicate in a manner that does not descend into repetitive and baseless fights, name calling, personal attacks and straight out abuse.  

They harassed my father so badly that he decided to hand over negotiations of the family holiday house over to me. For us, this was a good decision as I have been involved in workplace negotiations for a long period and I am experienced in dealing with a manipulative management that do not employ sound management practices, they attempt to erect obstacles in the path of people trying to get things done. 

So when I sent them correspondence informing them of the change of communication status, I made sure I sent them a pretty clear message. Or so I thought, I did not think there was any ambiguity with my statement, yet they thought they could try to manipulate me anyway, but as they found out, this wasn’t going to work if they kept trying this on – the relationship was going to deteriorate.  

I work with four basic principles, these are:

1. Deal only in facts.
2. No emotions.
3. Never get personal.
4. Send a clear and concise message.

So this is where we find ourselves, we have inherited an extended family holiday house so I am forced to deal with these arseholes. The psychological problems they bring to the relationship really offer no solutions, they don’t have a lot to offer but anyone who is unfortunate enough to have to deal with them all feel the same.