“I’m sorry” said first at the dinner table can save a whole week of cold silence.

A standoff at home costs more than the thing that started it, and it compounds every evening nobody speaks. Going first feels like conceding the argument, which is why both people wait. In practice it ends the expensive part immediately and settles nothing about who was right. The cold week is optional and nobody chooses it on purpose.

When the house has gone quiet, say the short version tonight, before the plates are cleared. Not a speech, not a list of what they also did. Two words, and then pass the salt.