Roommate conflict is unavoidable. Although, as parents, we hope that our college student will get along perfectly with his college roommate, it is an unrealistic hope. Whenever individuals live closely together, some amount of conflict is inevitable. Actually, a little bit of conflict is not necessarily a bad thing. Students learn important skills as they learn to handle issues with their roommates.
However, even when we realize that some degree of conflict may be inevitable, and may possibly have beneficial effects, we hope that any conflict will be minimal. There are some things, short of giving in on everything and putting up with anything, that students can do to minimize the issues that may arise between roommates. If this is your student’s first time sharing a room and/or living with a larger group of people in close quarters, you may increase your student’s chances of having a good experience by helping her to think through some of the issues that might come up and how she will handle them. In an earlier post, we considered some things that your student might do to prepare for life with a roommate. In this post, we’ll look at what your student might do to reduce conflict and how to handle inevitable conflict when it occurs. In an upcoming post, we’ll examine some actual positive benefits of dealing with some conflict.
Here are a few things that your college student might consider to reduce potential conflict.
