How do you discuss difficult topics with your parents/relatives? What topics are especially hard?

SEX. How to score with girls. Can’t talk about it now, either… Bet they didn’t know how to answer, Mom being such a devout Catholic and all…My friends didn’t really know and the girls weren’t talking!

Difficult Conversations.

I’m over it. I can ask my parent’s advice on financial matters, where they have more experience and fundamentals have stayed similar forever, but I became aware at a young age that my parents would never be the one’s to help me with questions of sexuality, identity or parenting. If I wanted a helpful conversation with modern perspectives, and not loaded with emotional baggage, I learned I had to seek others out. Parents are for some things, not everything.

Death.

Politics. We are a mix of moderate dems and reps. It is more problematic now that so much news coverage is so biased. So we mostly avoid the topic.

Nothing is really taboo in my family. The one real issue is death / illness / preparing or bracing for the (possibly) inevitable. My Sis is pretty ill right now, and when I try to discuss these things with my wife she gets emotional and cries. My other Sis likes to make issues out of everything and climbs on a soap box. “Well, she should have done this or she needs to do that.” Sometimes it’s easier to talk to someone outside of immediate family. But it is what it is I guess.