NYT Shout if You're Against Spanking 10/22/09

This article discusses how parenting has at times traded the disciplinary method of spanking for yelling. Parents lose their cool in front of the kids and explode at them which can come off as rejection and can damage self-esteem. Parents may feel at a loss of what to do for discipline so they resort to reminding, nagging, timeout, counting 1-2-3 and get frustrated if those tools don't work. There aren't many studies on the effects of yelling but there are many studies on the negative effects of spanking. Psychologists and psychiatrists generally agree that yelling should be avoided so parents should try to be aware of what triggers yelling and attempt to prevent those situations. It must be hard for parents to discipline their kids if they really won't listen. There should really be more parenting classes that assist new parents with skills and advice on how to best handle situations because this knowledge isn't always passed down from parents to children.