If you have ever found yourself yelling uncontrollably at your child, this is for you. Today I read an article on Yahoo about how yelling at your child, especially at a young age, can have some really nasty long term affects on the child’s ability of feeling empathy. In the article a mother shared her story of when her husband, child, and herself were in Hawaii driving around on their way to Hana and the child threw a bottle at the front window causing the father to swerve all over the road. Without hesitation the mother and father started continuously yelling at their child for what probably seemed like a lifetime. About a month later the mother found her video camera and was playing the video she had been recording right before the “water bottle” incident occurred. She had meant to turn the video camera off before she put it in her purse but had a rude awakening while watching her video. She heard her and her husband lashing out at her son. Tears immediately began to stream down her face. She felt horrible. How could she be so rude to her own child?

We can see from this story that outbursts from parents to their kids can be very traumatizing for both parts. To refrain yourself from yelling at your child, here are a few tips: keep an anger journal and take everything out on paper and then after calming down go through your writing and talk calmly to your child about what upset you. Talk through your emotions because by doing that you are modeling how to handle everyday life frustrations. Minimize marriage arguments because even yelling at somebody who is not your child can affect the child as well. Overall, we should learn to control our anger before it controls us!