Have you ever noticed how ineffective many of some of our parenting techniques are? Have you ever tried to change that?
I did. I tried a lot of quick fixes, but…
Yep, they either fizzled away, or outright bombed on my face.
It’s time now to try the slow and steady track. Try something for 30 days, and make what works stick. Much better than struggling with the same old thing over and over again, right?
Are you with me? Shall we take this on?
Together, we focus on one simple aspect of personal/parenting excellence each month, and turn it into a habit. Together, we keep each other going.
Ready?
For our very first habit, let’s focus on something very basic, something that bugs most parents… how do we stop yelling at our kids so much? Through the course of the month, we will try to understand why we get stuck in the cycle of constantly screaming at our kids, how to prevent it and some techniques to calm down.
This page will be a placeholder for all the articles related to this habit as we go through the month. I will publish the first article today with this page, and then update this page every Monday as a new article is published. For any reason, if you cannot play along just yet, bookmark this page so you can come back to it later. The most effective way to ensure that you don’t miss any articles is of course to sign up for the free weekly email notifications.
Ok, here we go –
- Understanding Why We Scream: The Vicious Cycle of Explosive Outbursts
- How a Simple Tip From My Father-in-Law Helped Me Avoid a Recurring Power Struggle
- How to Ensure that You Will Not Yell at Your Kids Even When You are Hopping Mad
- How Not to Let a Known, Psychological Phenomenon Keep You From Becoming a Scream-Free Parent
First article and first comment 🙂
And it happened to me this morning. My little princess woke up very early this morning and started the week by crying, yelling, screaming and what did I do??? I yelled at her. And of course, after I dropped her of at the daycare, I felt bad like I always do.
Great blog and good luck!
Thanks for the comment and the wishes, Adi!
I’m sorry about the way your morning started 🙁 Hopefully by the end of a month of consciously focusing on this topic, you will notice that the yelling episodes have dramatically reduced! Here’s to all of us for making a positive change….
And also, thank you so much for your help with resolving the comment display issue on the blog as well. I cannot say how much I appreciate it!!!
Thanks for a fantastic post. I am already using these techniques while dealing with my kids and wife. And I can see the positive difference in our behaviour to each other. Same time, I regret that how precious family moments I have lost due to my anger in the past. Anyway , as we say “ better late than never”.
Already looking forward for the next tip.
Manish, You are absolutely right about “better late than never”. Another one that keeps me on track is “progress not perfection”. If we start living by these simple phrases, I think we can make a significant different to the quality of our lives!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and joining us in this journey!
I’m very much looking forward to this series. I have an 11-year old daughter who is in full swing as a “tween” and a 10-year old step-son who’s a few years behind on the maturity scale. They are at the opposite ends of the spectrum and trying to meet them both in the middle can be a great source of frustration! I’m hopeful I can find some useful tips to help my husband and I communicate constructively with them instead of letting our anger get the better of us when they push our buttons.
Here’s to the start of a great journey with you all!
Hi Kim, You have such fantastic attitude… With an attitude like that I’m sure you’ll find a way to balance the challenging situation and figure a way to respond to the frustrations in a kind and gentle manner! You may not always make it, but as long as you keep that attitude, I think everything will work out in the end 🙂
About communicating constructively, have you read the book “How to talk so kids will listen, and listen so kids will talk”? It’s a relatively easy read book, and I found it *extremely* helpful in dealing with situations where kids push our buttons (and we push theirs!). Definitely a book worth making room for in any parent’s busy schedule.
Thank you for the book tip, Sumitha! I just purchased it for my Kindle for about $10 through Amazon. I hope I can find some advice to share with you all as I read through it!
Hi Kim! You sure are a quick action taker 🙂 I hope you like the book and find it as useful as I did. Please do share your experiences with implementing some of the tips from the book (either through the comments here or emailing me at sumitha @ afineparent . com. I look forward to seeing what you think!)
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