Reasons not to yell or scream

Following on from my last post this is an issue still at front of mind for me. So to remind us (me) why it isn't a good technique to yell.

1. It is going to allow children to think that it is acceptable behavior.

2. If a crisis situation arises and you yell at you child to stop them from being in danger that won't respond because they are too used to hearing you yell.

3. Think about your poor neighbours listening to your family have regular conversations about where the clean socks can be found.

4. How do you come across when you are yelling, is this the type of person you wish to be remembered as?
5. Yelling can be quite ineffective compared to a soft voice. My teaching days taught me that if you whispered to a student the whole classroom would go silent in order to hear what you were saying.

Well these are all excellent reasons to stop screaming, the best reason would have to be for me though is the fact that i am Christ's ambassador on this earth and this was not the way Jesus acted. If I am living my life trying to become Christ-like then I should stop, think about the level of my voice, the tone I am about to use and most importantly the words about to come out.

AHHHHHHH- STOP SCREAMING!

My idea for this blog this year is that it will my parenting issues, realisations and general stuff about my life as a mum and my other blog will stick to more general issues although being a SAHM (see now I have labelled myself after 3 years)alot of my issues are parenting ones.
Anyhow as you can see from the title it has only taken me three whole years well really 29 years to realise that it is not a good idea to yell back at your child for yelling.

You know what I am talking about, sadly I guess I have been one of those mums you see in the shopping centres that have the child running around being generally noisy, Princess doesn't screaming horribly (unless its a meltdown) but she does sing at the top of her voice but rather than quietly telling her to quieten down I am the mum who will say in a rather LOUD voice "YoU nEeD tO bE qUiEt". But you know what it is even worse at home. I will hear my Princess yelling at her Sweet sister or squealing in a pitch almost only heard by dogs, and what I should do is get up and move in a close proximity to her and tell her in a gentle voice that she should speak in hushed tones. But, you know what's coming, from the other side of the house I will yell out "QUIT THAT SCREAMING..."

Very effective parenting, what is sad is that I have always known this to be a bad idea, I even understand that Princess has learnt this darling trait through her banshee like mother but it some how didn't go in.

What really is funny is that I was listening to a children's cd just this morning and it is talking about all of 'mum's' lovely characteristics and one of them was "She only whispers and never yells" and I thought that's not my girls' mum.

And so ladies and gentlemen I have decided that this
is something that must change, unless I want Sweetness to also learn this delightful trait, and that I need to re-calibrate my way of responding- wish me luck.