Ol’ Yeller

Do I yell because I am a mother, or am I a mother because I yell?

Is it too much to ask that we normalize yelling at our kids?

Because I would feel way better about my frequent outbursts.

Until it happens i'll just have to use this platform to admit that I DO yell at my kids.

I hate admitting it, but I can’t lie, it happens, and lately, a lot more than I would like to admit. 

Before, when I was a single woman, a rebel without a cause, I would judge parents that yelled at their kids.

How could they do that? It was your choice to have kids, if you can’t handle it don’t have babies. 

Fast forward to present day: I am so sorry for ever judging you. It wasn’t that you were yelling, it was that your kids WERE NOT listening!  

I used to look at my precious angels and think I could never yell at those sweet faces…

Then one day, when I least expected it, they did something so defiant and so dangerous, that I had no choice but to raise my voice. From that day on, my parenting style took a hard left. 

I do consider myself a pretty patient parent , but when my kids aren’t listening and I have said the same thing more than thrice, I promise you, I will lose my shit. 

On the one hand, I know that the professionals say yelling will traumatize a child. On the other hand, those professionals do not live with these tiny terrorists who risk their lives everyday by not listening. 

I really don’t know where it comes from. I mean, I remember getting yelled at as a child and telling myself then, that I would never yell at my kids. HA HA! My parents were legit saints and I was just a pain in the ass kid who couldn’t listen. 

I want to think that I yell because my subconscious truly believes that my children can’t physically hear me.

Being real, I know I yell because I am irrationally angry that they will get hurt if they do something stupid and I just whisper at them to stop.

Since it’s not the 80’s anymore, and yelling at your kids is considered a poor parenting choice, I will leave this last thought with any of you ol’ yellers. 

It is okay to yell to protect your kids from themselves. You are a parent, you are protecting those babies, and you may need to raise your voice regularly for them to know it is for their own good. 

Look at me, I was yelled at as a child, and I turned out just fine. I am a responsible, respectable adult who is loyal and honest! 

Cheers to the 80’s and not raising ASSHOLES. 

P.S. I love you Mom and Dad! Thank you for yelling and caring enough to not let me get away with shit! 

XOXO