Have you yelled at your kids today? How that approach could backfire, big time...

If you’ve never yelled at your kids, give yourself a gold star. 

For the rest of us, we need to be really careful about yelling, criticizing and insults. A recent study found that children who grow up exposed to that are at high risk for developing some serious anxiety and depression. Even children with loving, kind parents who went off the deep end from time to time showed symptoms.

According to Byron Egeland, professor of child development at University of Minnesota, parental verbal aggression toward a kid is very damaging, as much so as physical abuse in some cases. Trying to make up for bad parenting with over-the-top good parenting doesn’t help and won’t erase negative or traumatic talk. All children will need verbal discipline from time to time - but parents need to take a deep breath first and deliver that in a firm tone without the volume or the insults.