Amy and her ex-husband have learned to use a code word whenever they have tension in their co-parenting.
She admitted that they are really good at co-parenting 90% of the time, however there are some moments when that isn't the case. So they decided to come up with a code word for whenever they're communicating and tension arises, one of them can use the code word and they immediately end the conversation to come back to it at a later time. When they were recently communicating about something, Amy blurted the word "pickle" out and her ex-husband recognized it as their newfound code word, so he just said "ok bye."
The rule of using the code word means that the conversation ends there regardless of where they are in the conversation. It's really helped them pause, take a breather, and come back when they both have some more perspective.