I know I yell at my kids far more than I should. Our house is full of yellers, actually, which doesn’t make it any easier (I frequently catch myself yelling at the kids to stop yelling…yes, I’m that mom.)

Shockingly, yelling doesn’t seem to work. Which leads to more yelling. Which leads to slammed doors, hurtful words, lots of tears…and a crushing sense of guilt when I think about how I want my kids to remember their childhood. To top it off, I don’t remember my parents yelling at me, and I’m fairly certain that wasn’t because I never did anything wrong. Can’t I learn to be a better mom?

And then yesterday a friend of mine shared a link to the Orange Rhino Challenge. It totally inspired me, so now I’m publicly stating my first goal: starting tomorrow, I will go one full week without yelling at my kids. (The Rhino challenge mom is doing a full year, but I’m not in that league…yet. There’s always hope, right?)

I’ll track my progress (or lack thereof) in this blog as I struggle to become the patient, loving mom I know I can be.

I want to be a mom who has the energy and determination to forge ahead and parent with more composure and warmth and without the yelling!

Stay tuned…