Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. Generally, the described techniques provide for communicating, by a relay node, in a time division multiplexing (TDM) mode, with a parent node via a parent link configured between the relay node and the parent node and with a child node via a child link configured between the relay node and the child node, identifying a TDM alignment conflict between a first transmission scheduled for the parent link and a second transmission scheduled for the child link, and transmitting a conflict indication (e.g., a cancellation message or an interruption message) to the parent node or the child node.