First, what "high conflict" means in practice
It usually means one or both of you cannot yet have a practical conversation without it turning into an argument about something else. Messages come back longer than they went out. Small requests become referendums on who is the better parent. You find yourself drafting replies at midnight.
None of the advice below requires the other parent to change. It changes what you send, which changes what comes back.
Six rules that lower the temperature
- Brief. Three or four sentences. Long messages contain more things to argue with.
- One topic. If there are two things to sort out, send two messages on two days.
- Facts and dates, not adjectives. "He was collected at 6.40, the agreed time was 6" rather than "you were late again".
- Ask a question that has an answer. "Can you do the 5pm drop-off on Friday 12th?" rather than "can you try to be on time for once?"
- Do not answer the bait. Accusations, questions about your private life, comments about your new partner: no reply is required. Answer only the part about the children, if there is one.
- Never reply at once. Draft, leave it an hour, reread, then send. Or paste it into the checker below first.
Check the message before it goes
Your message is sent securely to OpenAI to produce this result and is not stored by us. We never share it, and we only record that a check happened, not what it said.
The BIFF format
A widely used structure for replying to hostile messages: Brief, Informative, Friendly, Firm. It looks like this in practice.
Thanks for letting me know. Sam has his inhaler in the front pocket of his bag, and the school has a spare. Drop-off on Friday is 5pm as usual. Hope you both have a good weekend.
Notice there is no defence, no counter-accusation and no question that invites another round. The exchange ends.
What to send instead
| Instead of | Send |
|---|---|
| "You never tell me anything about school." | "Could you forward the school newsletter when it comes? I'd like to keep track of trip dates." |
| "Why is she always exhausted when she comes back?" | "Ella has seemed tired on Mondays lately. Is she going to bed at a different time at yours? Happy to compare." |
| "I'm not discussing this again." | "I've said what I can on this one. Let's leave it there." |
| "Fine. Whatever you want." | "OK, agreed: pick-up at 6 on Thursday 14th." |
When it is not working at all
Some pairs of parents cannot yet coordinate directly, and that is a legitimate place to be. Parallel parenting reduces contact to the minimum, moves handovers to school, and puts every exchange through a structured channel. It is not a failure; it is the arrangement that protects children from the conflict while the adults cool down.
Tools that do part of this for you
The checker on this page is a one-off. In PeaceParent, Tone Guard checks every message as you write it, quiet hours stop late-night exchanges, and schedule changes are requests with a yes or no rather than open-ended conversations. It does not fix the relationship. It removes most of the occasions for a fight.