Some arguments are really requests in disguise. Ask “what do you need?” and the fight might end.

Fights often run on content that is not the point. Somebody wanted help, or reassurance, or twenty minutes of attention, could not find a way to ask, and the request came out as a complaint about dishes or lateness instead. Arguing the surface version can go all night, because winning it never delivers the thing anybody actually wanted.

Next time one starts, ask what they need right now, then stay quiet long enough for an answer to arrive. It works in your own direction too. Before you open a fight, check whether there is a plain request underneath that you could just say out loud.