Conflict Case

A conflict that I observed, took place between my mother and my uncle. Every year, my grandparents go to Scotland for eight months. However, they have a pet dog that they cannot bring with them. Out of my grandparents' five children, only my mom and uncle have ever volunteered to take care of the dog. Unfortunately, my parents see the dog as a lot of work because the dog is very messy and they are fed up with taking care of it. My uncle feels the same way. This past year my mother and my uncle shared the burden of taking care of the dog. However, when the question arose of who was going to take the dog next year, my uncle stopped talking to my mother. My mother tried to reach out to him but he continued to ignore her for many months. This made her sad and it hurt their relationship as siblings.

This conflict was caused by the frustration of taking care of my grandmother's dog. The dog has accidents even if you walk it ten times a day and it's food and veterinary bills are expensive. Both my mother and uncle were fed up with it and they both just wanted to relinquish the responsibility. If my grandparents were able to make other arrangements for their dog, this would not have happened.

This conflict could have been solved by many different approaches. My grandparents could have intervened and made arrangements for the dog to stay with one of their other children or other relatives. My mother and uncle could have tried to work together to find a dog lover who would have been willing to take my grandparents' dog. Lastly, if they were not able to find anyone, they could have said they would split the responsibility throughout the eight months again and just deal with it. The outcome of the first two resolutions would have pleased my mother and my uncle because they would not have the problem of taking care of my grandparents' dog. The outcome of the last resolution would have been that they accepted the issue and worked together to help each other out.

The outcome of this situation was that my uncle continued to ignore my mother for many months until other family members intervened and told him to communicate to her. My grandparents decided they are going to give the dog to another family member next time they go away. This relates to catholic social teaching because my grandparents are respecting the life of the dog, which is a creation of God, and they are treating their children with respect by not burdening them with responsibilities.

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