There's no hitting allowed in our house—including spanking. But as my neighbors can attest, the volume tends to go up around here—especially when the kids are being their most out-of-control selves. Now the experts in a new New York Times article are saying that yelling can be nearly as detrimental to a child's psyche as spanking.
Which is great, because we're not all carrying around enough guilt
because we bottlefed with BPA-ridden bottles, work and have to leave
our kids with someone else, let them watch TV before they turned two
and generally did the kinds of stuff our parents let us do back in the
day (and we turned out okay). We definitely need to be made to feel
even more terrible about raising our voices when our kids are snarling,
screaming and fighting for dear life for the same pair of fairy wings.
Honestly, when the timeouts, the 1, 2, 3s, and the rah-rah sticker charts aren't
working, I kind of run out of other options—and the patience to try
them, too. I'd love to see the experts try their best "dears, that's a
bad choice" on my daughters when they're worked up to a frenzy. I bet I wouldn't have to get to three before the experts started their screaming.
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