MAN	From my perspective, having an attitude is just a breakdown in communication.
MAN 2	It was just the classic, "You'd better get rid of the attitude or I'll get rid of it for you."
WOMAN	"You're being rude to me." When parents say that, you're having an attitude.
ONSCREEN TEXT	What I wish my parents knew about...MY ATTITUDE.
WOMAN	Well, when someone's going through a tough time, it often can be expressed through anger and emotions. They could be withdrawn, be sad, irritable, snappy - most of the negative emotions, I guess, towards other people based on what they're feeling themselves.
MAN 2	It took...a tremendous amount of courage just to be like, "Hey, Mum," or, "Hey, Dad, um, I'm really sorry about this, but this is why I've been snappy. This is why I've just lost it sometimes," or "This is why I seem like I just don't care."
MAN	Oftentimes the people that you're fighting with are the people that you care about or the people that you're closest to.
WOMAN	I think some of the things that parents can do is to show them positive body language. Just make sure they're OK instead of going at it head-on and confronting them or, worse, being...getting angry at them for something.
MAN 2	Well, instead of saying that you've got an attitude, just say, "What's wrong? How can I help? Let me know what's happening." And honestly mean it. Coming home from school and having Mum say, "Oh, how was your...how was school?" every day, somewhat just sounds, "Oh. It's rehearsed. Oh. Here she goes again." And then you just end it with just saying, "Oh, it was good."
MAN	If you guys have an issue, you don't...you're not obligated to work it out immediately. You can have a discussion, and if it gets too heated, just say, "Hey, look, we're getting, er, too heated right now. We need to take a step back, just cool down. We'll come back to this later. We can talk about this at dinner, or after dinner. Or we can talk about this tomorrow. We can both sleep on it."
WOMAN	The best thing you can do for yourself when you're confronted or stuck like that is just take a break, remove yourself from the situation, and take a breath, and come back to it five or ten minutes later. You'll find that your emotions won't be so high up, you won't be so highly strung, and you're better able to communicate your feelings and your emotions to the other person.