How To Get Your Kids To Be Quiet
Without yelling at them to be quiet.
Life coach and 10-year old mummy Su-Ann Phillips talks about the difficult decisions couples have to confront — kids. What do you do or say when one partner isn’t ready?

One of the things we face as parents is that our kids tend to get extremely “excited” at times and lose control of their volumes. This can be in the car or worse, in an airplane when you really wish your child would just be a little quieter.
I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like the “Shh! You’re too noisy!” kind of response. It’s a huge pain to have to keep reminding and disciplining your child about their volume.
A very simple parenting hack you can try is to sit down with your child and come up with a scale of numbers of what volume should your child be at in different settings.
For example, when you’re talking normally when she’s right next to you, that’s a 5. When in a car, it can drop to a 3 or 4 so that it’s not too distracting for the driver.
Setting up a simple scale like that makes enforcement very easy — it’s like a code game you start to play with your child. It takes away a lot of the edge, the complaining, the nagging, the pleading, the begging and all sorts of other ways we try to get our children to quieten down. Plus, it can be fun and enjoyable!

Specifics of the scale:
#1 a whisper (for instance, in a library)
#2 “inside” voice (sleepy/go to bed voice)
#3 “inside” voice (in a public space like an airplane)
#4 “inside” voice (in a private space like a home)
#5 normal talking volume when he/she is next to you
#6 during a class when they need to speak up
#7 at a park when they’re happy and playing
#8 when they need to cheer someone on in a group setting, so they need to be louder than the rest
#9 when they’re calling out to someone in a crowded space like a school canteen
#10 when they’re under duress and in a stressful situation
The actual execution goes like this:
“Hey, number 4, please.”
“It’s number 2”, or
“Go for 9!”
Try it with your kids and share with me if you found them useful. Let me know of your other strategies to get your kids to quieten down without having to yell at them :)
As parents, we all need support in finding out what is the best way to get our kids to cooperate with us. There is no singular method that can work. Join me as I share how parenting can be easy, once you’ve cut out all the noise. Focus on YOU. Create your own parenting style and own it. To find out more about what’s in store for you as a parent, join our TruSelf™ Quick-Bites workshop!
