The moment has arrived, your child has toys all over the house and it’s summer vacation. You are at your wits end and simply cannot understand why this child of yours won’t just listen to you. The only solution in your mind at this very moment is to yell at your child. After all they listen pretty quickly when your voice escalates to an unreasonable level. The sad thing is that this doesn’t teach any lessons to your child, other than when someone isn’t listening that yelling is the answer. The other side of yelling too often is that it can wreak havoc upon your health, so stop. Learn to stop yelling at your kids while still getting them to be respectful and polite.
Stop Yelling
- Breathing is always the first recommendation you will find online when it comes to learning ways to stop yelling, we are certain you are rather sick of hearing that you must breathe in order to remain calm. It’s so true though, learning to take calming, deep breaths during a moment of high stress are really helpful so as long as you do it regularly.
- Encourage your child to change, think about the response you want to receive from your child and work towards addressing the behavior versus yelling in the moment. When we yell it’s just us wanting an immediate response to our commands, sadly, kids need to learn our expectations. Using firm, matter of fact words gains a positive, consistent response from your child.
- Change the tone of voice; you can still command a child without yelling in their face. Practice finding your firm, matter of fact voice so that the child can recognize it and learn that their parent means business when that firm voice appears. Yelling is just stressful for everyone involved, but a firm voice allows for emphasis without stress.
- Set consistent expectations across the board with your child, if your child is acting amuck it could be because they are either having emotional issues to something or they simply are confused as to what you expect from them. When you set consistent expectations about behaviors and responses, your child slowly learns to behave a certain way.
- Getting to the level of your child, such as kneeling down so that they are at eye level with you will assist in them feeling less intimidated. When your child feels less intimidated their defense mechanism to yell back or not listen won’t be as strong. Take time to get down to your child’s level, speak firmly and remain consistent as a means to have a positive response which keeps you from yelling constantly.
The fastest way to correct your yelling behavior as a parent is to step back inside the shoes of your inner child. Take time to think about your childhood and what would have worked best for you back in that stage of growing up. If yelling and screaming was something that would have worked for you, well then you can continue doing that. If you find that yelling and screaming only made you feel awful and less likely to even want to listen to your parents, then make a change!