Closeness, rivalry, support, connection, control, criticism, jealousy, misunderstandings, misinterpretations of intent — what people want from family relationships and what they experience in them often fail to match. The way siblings talk to each other and listen to each other, or fail or refuse to do so, weighs heavily in how the relationships feel. What a mother says out of concern can easily sound like criticism to a daughter. Add the fact that men’s communication styles are very different from women’s, and you have the complicated, wonderful and terrible phenomenon of family. Dr. Tannen’s
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