My kids only understand yelling

I keep reading articles about how to stop yelling because it's useless and how moms feel bad about yelling... but what do you do when it's the only thing they listen to? Hubby says it's because we don't yell much, so they pay more attention when we do.

Example... DD keeps following me around when I'm lugging a big basket of laundry. She's in the way. I ask her to please move... once... twice... three times. Then, I yell at her to get out of the way. That works (and sometimes they're upset, usually not).

Any insight on how to deal with this? No, I'm quite sure they're not deaf, lol.

 

In that situation I would say something silly like "Beep beep heavy load coming through", or "Scoot yer bootie outta my way chick", or "Wiggle your butt to the side for me" or something along those lines. It gets them giggling and they don't even realize they are doing what I asked them to.

I do end up yelling, I admit it, but I try really really hard not to. I try to keep things light and fun when I can. Using silly phrases, words, actions can help coerce them into helping me when they'd really rather not!

 

I do way too much yelling too, but I'm working on it. It makes me feel bad to yell, and I don't think it's good for my kids either. My friend and I challenged each other to a vow of "yellibacy" which really forced me to think about not yelling and to find alternative ways to deal with behavior.

 

One thing that tends to lead to yelling in our house is that I often don't give them enough time to process my request & act on it. Usually I feel like since I've repeated the request 3 times they must have heard me by now, right? But I've now started requesting something and then waiting quietly & patiently for 10 - 15 seconds to see what they do & 90% of the time just giving them more time than it seems like they should need is all they need to get moving. I think they just have so much going on in their heads all the time these days that it takes longer for things to register enough to act on.

 

That sums our house up perfectly. I have to remind myself that they're just small and take time to process things.