What to do instead of shoutingStep 1 of 8

Before you read on

Two things sit outside this course, and they are at the top so that nobody has to read four lessons first to find them. If you are frightened of what you might do, tell somebody today rather than waiting to find out. A doctor, a parent helpline, or somebody who can take the children for an afternoon. That fear is a reason to get help quickly, and it is not a verdict on what kind of parent you are. And if a child is being harmed, by you or by anyone else in the house, that is a different problem from shouting and this is the wrong course for it. The course called When home is not safe is where that goes. Nothing here is scored, and reading this does not make you the parent it describes.

Lesson 1 of 6 · What shouting is actually doing

You already know

Nobody arrives at a course like this by accident. You know you shout. You knew it before you opened this, and you have probably promised yourself twice this month that you would stop.

So this course is not going to spend its first minute telling you that shouting is bad. You have that information. What you do not have is a working account of why the promise keeps failing, and what to put in its place.

One thing before anything else. Shouting at a child is not the same as being a bad parent, and reading this is not a confession. Most of the parents who shout most are the ones carrying the most.