Overheard my neighbor yell at his kid for 15 minutes straight at 7am

I'm trying to break the habit of losing my temper with my own kids, and that display across the fence last Saturday was a wake-up call. The guy was screaming about a spilled bowl of cereal, and his kid just froze up. Has anyone else used bad examples from strangers to help keep yourself in check?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenixb341mo ago

Gotta push back a little here. 15 minutes is probably excessive, but a quick yell at 7am when you're running late and cereal's everywhere is just parenting, not a wake up call. Kids need to see you're human sometimes, not some zen master who never reacts.

drew_reed621mo ago

Imagine trying to get your kid to eat cereal and you end up giving them a free 15 minute lecture on fluid dynamics. I get being stressed at 7am but at some point you gotta ask yourself if the spilled milk is really worth turning your morning into a hostage negotiation.

josepha3229d ago

Funny you mention this because a guy I work with used a similar situation to teach himself to count to ten before reacting. He saw a dad screaming at his kid in a parking lot for dropping a juice box and it hit him that he sounded exactly like that sometimes. So he started counting backwards from ten every time he felt the urge to yell. Said it gives you that split second to decide if it's worth it or if you're just being a jerk. The neighbor across from me does the opposite, he uses his own dad's screaming as a "what not to do" list. Pretty sure half of parenting is just watching other people fail and thinking "well at least I'm not that guy.