What is the best way to handle when your significant other is mad at you?

She’s taking the blame for one of two reasons..
-#1 Because she honestly feels like it was her fault.
-#2 Because she just wants sympathy and pitying her self is a good way of getting it.

Try to get her to see things from your point of view. Figure out what it is that’s really bothering her. You don’t have to agree with it, but try to understand it.

Time, n space usually works for me!

Have sex. It allows you to be close without actually having to talk to each other. Also angry sex is fantastic

Give her time to cool off like @Bobbilynn suggested. Then when you are both calm discuss where each of you went wrong. Maybe she is simply taking blame for her part in what went wrong.
It usually takes two to screw up a relationship. Rarely is it all one way.
Your both in the wrong if you never try to discuss what is really important and make it clear what each of you expect.

I choose to either make her laugh, almost always works…almost! Or I keep out of it, give her the silent treatment. Until in the end she admits I was right. Happy days :¬)

Walk away from the situation. not in a douchey manner, but seperate yourselves from each other to give you both time to cool down. Nothin ever gets solved when emotions are running high.Once your both cooled off sit down and TALK about what was bothering you both and try and really work though it and prevent further such occurrences from happening.

the sex thing works too :P

Somehow, you’ve offended/ wrong her in many ways and you haven’t made for them. I think you have that tendency, not to be mean. There are many things you did wrong ang they are many things you need to do to fix it. Ask your girlfriend what you did wrong and fix them all. For example, if you call her fat or something like that, buy her some chocolates. If she says you insult her family, then, call her cousins, mother, father, etc. The most important thing to do is to agologize. Use tack the next time you have to say something harsh.

Take some time to cool off, and then apologize. Don’t try to fix it unless she asks you to do something in particular. And then the next day do something nice for her like flowers or a note on her pillow.

I use the same strategy as @ucme. Humor goes a long, long way to bringing people away from anger and back to someplace where they might reasonably examine the conflict. I don’t necessarily agree with trying to figure out whose wrong, whose right, who should apologize and all of that kind of thing. I think it’s more important to listen actively to where each of you is coming from on an issue and to clarify what each other means because you could be saying the same words and meaning entirely different things. We all come with different histories and this impacts meaning. It’s also important to stear clear of name calling, belittling or other damaging types of communication patterns that create resentment. Avoidance creates resentment also. And taking the fall all the time turns people into martyrs. Don’t do it yourself and don’t allow someone else to retreat into that pattern of beahavior. It helps to create a thinking/behavioral chain and each do your own…put them together and then you can see where things broke down and where you need to clarify with new info. Agree that some issues can’t be resolved and then figure out how you are going to move beyond these without anyone being made to feel bad about it. Work on building conflict resolution skills and take short breaks while resolving issues but agree to come back to work on things later. Stonewalling which amounts to walking away and then never getting around to resolution creates contempt across time. It is NOT an optimal solution.

Create some distance to let them cool down a bit,but not before tossing a pie in their face ;)

Sometimes a little analysis and reflection go a long way. Figure out if there’s a pattern to what causes the arguments, and if there is, determine if it’s something that you can live with making small changes to correct, or if it’s too big, or too fundamental to change.

You are not responsible for how another person chooses to feel. If your girlfriend is mad, let her be, that is her responsibility. You can take some time off, go for a walk, sit and be quiet, or put on some mutually enjoyable music.

If this happens to you very often, use the quiet time to reflect and re evaluate the relationship. It is meeting your expectations? Perhaps you are not with the person you want to be with.

I will repeat what was said above. Time and space….I cannot communicate effectively when my body is in flight or fight mode (angry). It’s tough to experience someone else’s anger, but it does tend to escalate things if I hang around to try to repair things. It doesn’t usually take long for one of us to talk again though, after calmed down. Then we can talk sensibly.
after everyine calm
You could share your feelings about what you were responsible for in the fight….something like I felt blamed when you said that we were overdrawn in the account and I snapped at you.

it’s good to have a good loyal dog on standby, preferably one who loves you, and just likes her.