Excerpt from Laugh More, Yell Less: A Guide to Raising Kick-Ass Kids (CreateSpace, 2015):

I know that sometimes parenting feels like an extra job. Day to day, you’re just getting through. Most of the time you don’t know what you are doing. You go on instinct and react out of fear. At almost every moment, you worry that you are really screwing it up. And we all lose it sometimes.

Feeling lost and worrying all the time is normal. It’s human to blow your top when you’re under this much strain. Understanding that the fear and anger can overwhelm your senses, I’m going to ask you to push “pause” for a minute. This job is more than it appears. For just a minute, I need you to raise your eyes from the day-to-day and look up at the horizon. Your child may save the world one day. You may be raising the next Ghandi, Bill Gates, or Malala Yousafzai.

There is something important that you need to know. It may be hard to get your head around what I am about to tell you. You’re not just another parent. You’re more. You are a like a sleeper agent. You have abilities that you haven’t activated yet. You have not tapped into your true powers.

What if I told you that I am 100% certain that your child is destined to play a critical part in the future of the world? It sounds extreme. You can try to shake off the possibility that you are raising the kick-ass kids that the world needs. But you can’t. What if I’m right? If future-me sent a message to present-me that my son or daughter is going to affect the future direction of the world, I would have to pay attention.

Sure, that’s a lot of responsibility. Don’t panic. Remember, you have special abilities.

You bring a lifetime of valuable experiences to your job as a parent. You may think that all the mistakes you made are worthless but you’re wrong. Everything that happened in your life made you who you are. Every success, failure, and misstep has value in this mission.

Let me assure you: your kids are watching and learning from you. They learn so much from the way you interact with them. The way you live your life each day carries enormous weight, more than what you say to your kids or even what you do. I want to help you tap into your special abilities to strengthen your family from the inside out.

Here is the perfect place for you to start:

Sounds simple, right? It is.

In fact, you can start right now.

Put this book under your arm and go tell your kids a joke, find a funny movie on cable, or listen to a comedian with your partner. Gather the family around the TV or dinner table. You will start to see a difference. You’re all laughing and enjoying your time together. No one is yelling. Savor the moment. Take a mental picture. Now you have a taste of what more laughter can do for you, and your family. Do you want to do it more?

Here’s where I can help. The trick is not finding something to laugh about. The trick is how to do it more, like all the time. I know it sounds impossible, a constantly laughing family, like some robotic Disney movie with sunny skies and no clouds. Don’t worry, the problems will still be there. There will always be stuff to yell about. I promise.

Laughing more and yelling less is a long-term formula. A happier family is just the start of great things to come. This is only the starting point to raise kick-ass kids.

In any random day, you might laugh a little and yell a lot. Or maybe you laugh about the same amount as you yell. I’ve met lots of parents that feel like they yell all the time and can’t even remember the last time they laughed hard.

Let’s change the ratio so your family is the place where you get more laughs every day. And need to yell less.

Does this sound like an improvement over how you feel right now? When you change the ratio, funky things start to happen: you can concentrate more, your mind opens up, you feel more creative and free, and you become happier and healthier. I can help you get there.

This isn’t about “turning your frown upside-down” or some short-term cure to change your mood. This is bigger than that. Hello? McFly? Knock, knock! Remember, this is about your kids.