Some of our toughest negotiations happen away from the bargaining table. In fact, they may happen closer to our dinner table. We recently received a question from a reader about negotiation with kids, and asked Program on Negotiation’s Katie Shonk for some insight.
Q: I avoid using hardball tactics in my professional negotiations since they often backfire and escalate conflict. But at home, my wife and I often find ourselves resorting to threats, bribes, and lies to get our three young children (ages seven, five, and three) to cooperate, and I lose my cool more often than I’d like. Our kids may comply in the short term, but lasting improvements seem elusive. How can we deal more successfully with our most difficult negotiating counterparts—our kids? Is negotiating with kids worthwhile?
KS: Kudos to you for noticing that children respond about as well to hardball tactics and emotional outbursts as grown-ups do. By contrast, when parents use principles of collaborative negotiation judiciously, they foster trust, respect, and creative thinking in their kids. In fact, children as young as toddlers can become more cooperative when they’ve played a role in negotiating rules and resolving conflicts.
Some people object that parents who negotiate with their kids risk forfeiting too much power. But, as in the business world, negotiation doesn’t require us to make unwanted concessions, and it can still include “consequences” (if-then warnings with follow-through, such as “If you keep playing, then we won’t have time for books”). Moreover, by setting clear, consistent limits in negotiations with our kids, we protect our own needs (for respect, quiet time, and so on) and, in so doing, model healthy behavior.
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Strategies for Negotiating with Kids
Through my own experience negotiating with kids, I have found the following three strategies to be helpful.
1. Try an interest-based approach.
Professional negotiators understand the importance of exploring the interests that underlie a counterpart’s request or demand. When we identify what the other party values most, we open the door to trades that can create value and often head off the need for a power-based approach (that is, hardball tactics such as threats).
An interest-based approach when negotiating with kids may be especially useful when we’re dealing with children, who are generally more emotional, less rational, and less articulate than adults, and thus more prone to escalating a dispute beyond all reason. For example, if your daughter wants to wear sandals to preschool in the middle of winter, rather than demanding that she put on her boots immediately, try asking questions aimed at understanding her thinking. Suppose she reveals that she wants to emulate her favorite cartoon princess, who’s impervious to cold. Now you have an opening for a win-win deal, and maybe a science experiment, too. You could explain that although she must wear her snow boots outside, you will bring some snow inside for her to play with after school.
2. Reduce stressors.
Business negotiators learn to take steps to encourage rational decision-making at the bargaining table—for example, by relaxing deadlines and devoting ample time to prepare. Similarly, as parents, when you are negotiating with kids, you can reduce stressors that exacerbate conflict with our kids, such as fatigue and tight time frames. This might mean setting earlier bedtimes (for kids and parents alike) and finding ways to short-circuit ongoing struggles, such as helping an indecisive child choose his clothes for the week on Sunday afternoon rather than just before school each day.
3. Show empathy.
In our professional negotiations, a counterpart’s anger can make us so uncomfortable that we offer concessions just to appease her. Similarly, a child’s display of anger or frustration pushes our hot buttons. We tend to respond by expressing disapproval or downplaying his emotions, reactions that leave him feeling ashamed or misunderstood. We may also be tempted to cave in to unreasonable demands when negotiating with kids.
Instead, try using the principles of active listening to understand your children’s strong emotions better. Active listening involves paraphrasing what someone is saying without judgment, asking open-ended questions aimed at clarifying her reasoning, and identifying and acknowledging her underlying emotions. With kids in particular, mimicking their tone may convey that you take them seriously.
For example, if your three-year-old is having a meltdown because you won’t let him have another cookie, instead of trying to reason with him (“You already had two”), get down to his eye level and say, “You are really upset right now! I can tell that you really wanted that cookie! It sounds like you think I’m being unfair.” Such empathic statements, which convey that you’re not frightened by your children’s emotions, can be enormously reassuring to them.
What are your own personal tips for negotiating with kids? Do you have any other questions? Leave a comment below.
When one of my teenage daughters (now adults) would tell me a bizarre idea they wanted to try, I would say “That’s an interesting idea. Can I think about it and tell you my answer tomorrow after school?” Just acknowledging their idea may have merit seemed to please them and it diffused the tension of an immediate answer until the next day. Then I might say “I thought about your idea and have a suggestion “. This gave me the opportunity to think of other options.