What Is Megaphone Parenting?

Yelling at children is never a good idea. Therefore, raising them as if they were always listening to us through a megaphone has bad consequences. But there are solutions and possibilities to fix it.

Although the name may sound comical, the consequences of megaphone parenting are not good for children. Therefore, in this article we are going to discover what it is and how we can avoid it.

Be that as it may, it is true that many parents, due to frustration, little information, fatigue, anger or lack of time, neglect the care of their children and do not opt ​​for optimal methods for the education of their little ones.

Parenting with megaphone

One of the incorrect ways of educating a child is the aforementioned parenting with a megaphone, so called in reference to those parents who make constant use of the shouting voice to get their little ones to obey.

In general, upbringing is often accompanied by other undesirable methods, such as disproportionate punishment, systematic threats or the famous “because I said so”, without further explanation or turn of the page.

As you can imagine, parenting that includes constant yelling and punishment negatively affects a child’s development. Fortunately, you can redirect a conflictive situation like this if you know how, especially during the early stages.

The consequences of megaphone parenting

The consequences of shouting-out parenting are not positive at all. Let’s see the main ones that are usually found in the common of treated children.

Promoting insecurity

The trace of the scream can be seen even in the smallest children, even from babies. Therefore, it is observed that boys show serious problems when making decisions with confidence.

According to a study published by Professor Susan Woodhouse of Lehigh University, a child’s insecurity increases with each cry that is given, even if it is done in a merely punctual way.

Growth of irresponsible behavior in megaphone parenting

This type of upbringing also leads to childish behavior that tends to be irresponsible. Although it can be effective as a momentary deterrent, in the long term the child will develop a bad attitude, focused, above all, on rebellion.

This is commented by educational expert and writer Whitney R. Cummings who, through her experience, demonstrates the development of inappropriate behaviors that cause children to seek continuous gratification while neglecting their responsibilities.

Limitation of autonomy

We return to the postulates of Cummings, who affirms that screams condition children. And it is that, through their studies, we observe that these little ones who are raised with a megaphone do not show great capacity for thinking on their own. In this way, the child develops reacting in various ways to his autonomy, either by fighting, or by escaping or by annulling himself.

At a very young age, the little one presents behaviors of inability to cope with adults. Therefore, with his lack of preparation, he is not ready to make the right decisions, especially when he feels under pressure, which is when he reacts worst.

Reduces the child’s growth potential

The growth potential of the child, and we are not referring to the physical but to their cognitive development and the exploitation of their talents and abilities, is also reduced, and prevents the child from having tools to achieve their personal fulfillment.

In a Unicef ​​report called Hidden in plain light , it was shown that children constantly exposed to toxic stress suffer alterations in their physiological brain development. In other words, the consequences at a cognitive, social and emotional level are tremendous. In addition, they also alluded to physical growth problems.

How to deal with inappropriate behaviors of children

Now, we must work on inappropriate behaviors of children without having to go to the shouting voice. To do this, some interesting recommendations can be made that, in addition, should not be ignored, as they will help to tackle the situation and redirect it soon:

• The first thing to do should be to analyze and assess the origin of the inappropriate behavior.

• You have to pay attention, even if they are minor, to these unwanted acts.
• If these episodes are repeated, they should be stopped immediately, decisively and firmly, but without threats or yelling.

Now that you know what parenting with a megaphone is and you have notions to avoid it, do not hesitate to work in this regard so that your children develop correctly, happily and removing unwanted or negative attitudes and behaviors.