More Ranting - The Daddy Voice

I have noticed more and more as the people of my generation become parents (us crazy generation Y's) that there is a sharp decline of yelling going on during parenting hours. Now you might be saying to yourself  "yay for us, we are above losing our tempers with our children and we will only discipline using gentle fairy sounds forevermore!" Hang on! Before we congratulate ourselves too much, I want to give some credence to the art of yelling in parenthood. Yes it is a fine and practised art. When my kids are bad, I yell at them. Not in a scary way but in a way that makes it clear that I expect their respect and obedience - I call it, the "Daddy Voice."  And no it doesn't always work.

 When I was little, adults were not afraid to raise their voice to their children or for that matter other children. I remember countless times being yelled at by strangers usually for good reasons. And I think this instilled a good amount of respect for my elders, something really lacking from children today. Yes perhaps it sometimes went a little far but judging by how children behave now versus how they did when I was little I think our parents might have had the better plan.

I don't see and have never seen much point in reasoning why the three year old is not allowed to smack the 2 year old, it is confusing for them and takes up much more time than simply yelling "NO HITTING"!!! Any three year old can understand that statement, and odds are they will be less likely to reoffend because being yelled at is understandably annoying.

I'm not advocating going around screaming at kids all day, but I would tell parents that it is OK to raise a little old school discipline a bit more often, if for no other reason than because I am tired of listening to the fairy discipline voice.


Here is some additional "parenting advice" from one of my favourite comedians. It has some foul language, but its still so funny.