This is an interesting blog that someone shared with me through a group I am a member of. I liked the mother's ideas quite a lot and agree that yelling severs relationships. I only have a few memories of being yelled at as a child, but they all involve hiding and crying. Even when others yelled at each other, I still cried.
An experience I had in a daycare I used to work in helped me realize that there are occasions to raise your voice. There were four teachers working with the after-school children and I was the quiet one. The otehr teachers all had children of their own and were years older than I. I had just graduated from high school and was barely 18. All of the other teachers yelled consistently to be heard in the large center with so many children and so much noise. I was the one who talked to children more individually and quietly. One day the children were not listening at all and I raised my voice enough to be heard by all in the room. They all, teachers included, stopped what they were doing and really paid attention to me. The other teachers were dumbfounded. They didn't realize I knew how to be heard; they didn't realize that I saved my loud voice for times when I needed it. It's like people who swear all the time; they don't get taken seriously because it's not new, not a shock, and therefore ineffective.
This being said, the times to use a loud voice are few and far between. Parents need to really be getting attention to necessitate yelling, in my mind. A child who is about to walk into danger and needs to realize what's happening is a valid reason, but if a child is looking at a parent the way the author of this blog describes, with fear of a parent in his eyes, that is the time to rethink yelling, or any form of punishment being employed.
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