Description of the Action I Took

It was my aunt’s birthday tonight and this is a great opportunity to spark conversations with my grandmother. I used the technique of being nice to try and change the wrong impression my grandmother has about me. During dinner, I passed food over to her. I know what dishes she liked so I often ask her if she wanted certain foods. During dinner, there was a lot of conversing going on. I noticed my grandmother was just sitting there eating, so I try and include her in the conversation.

During my whole dinner, I took mental notes about how she reacted when I started being nice to her. I noticed a bit of resistance – she was a bit not willing to accept my offers of kindness. I think the resistance is due to the fact that I am not acting the way I use to act. She thinks I might have a fever or something. I don’t think I need to change my actions because it is just the unfamiliarity that shocked her. Once the unfamiliarity goes away, I think our relationship will improve.

When we are ready to leave, I noticed my grandmother personally came up to me and ask me to help her bring some stuff down. She usually doesn’t ask me to do anything. I see this reaction as an indication of success because I got my grandmother to start talking to me.

Before the dinner, I was a bit worried about the availability of opportunities to spark conversations. I thought about my voice getting drowned in the crowd of voices. During the dinner, I purposely picked a seat next to my grandmother, which makes things a lot easier. It turned out that there were plenty of opportunities. After I got home and start writing this post, I felt that I made a good start, and I should continue doing this.