Jay Remer has some advice on how to keep the conversation lively and interesting while avoiding heated arguments...and indigestion. It can be a challenge to take a firm but polite stand on certain vital issues of faith and morals, if they arise during the conversation at a formal dinner. In fact, I can hardly even imagine a meal at our house without the forbidden topics of politics or religion coming up. According to Mr. Remer:- Keep the subject focused on the person to whom one is speaking rather than on oneself....
- Talk about virtues and avoiding faults or potential sore points is also good. The ego cloaks itself in passive aggression sometimes and can be cruel and certainly inappropriate at the table where digestion is important.
- Small talk (speaking about subjects which are often surface and don’t really “matter”) is always a fall back position and often times a good place to begin.
I know adults who said as children they dreaded sitting down to dinner because the time was used by the parents to interrogate, and/or berate their children instead of using it as a time to enjoy each others company.
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