Three generations. One very opinionated family.

5.1Why Grandma hates the phrase “third party”Grandma dislikes ‘third party’ because it turns a person into a plot device and a rival into an office.9 min

5.2Turning another person into a gatekeeperA gatekeeper is someone we make responsible for granting access to our worth, ease or future.9 min

5.3The strange way Grandma thinks about crushesGrandma treats a crush as information about your own imagination before it is a referendum from another person.9 min

5.4“Remembering forward”‘Remembering forward’ is family shorthand for making a preferred scene feel familiar in imagination.9 min

5.5Familiarity versus suspenseSuspense can become the emotional genre of a relationship long before anything happens.9 min

5.6Family conversations about rejectionAt our table, rejection is an event everyone is allowed to dislike and nobody is required to romanticise.9 min

5.7Reflection: what role have you assigned other people?People often carry roles in our private stories that they never agreed to play.7 min

Relationships