Loud Kids: How to Get Your Child to Talk Quieter (a Genius Parenting Hack)
Inside: Got loud kids? Here’s a genius parenting trick to get your kids to talk quieter.
It was one of those days. The kids were acting like wild stallions with megaphones in place of vocal cords, and no matter how many times I asked them to stop yelling, to speak quieter, to lower their noise level, and to use their inside voice, they wouldn’t settle down.
It was as if their internal kiddie batteries were charged to the fullest, and their energy was bubbling out with no end in sight. This type of loud child behavior will drain all the productive juices out of a busy mama and give her a headache.
And that headache was coming for me, I could feel it. I needed noise-canceling ear protection.
The kids were running, playing, yelling at the top of their lungs, laughing, shouting, making other sudden loud noises, and just being boys. No one was crying (yet), so at least we had that going for us.
Why are kids so loud?
When kids are loud, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have hearing problems or hearing loss, or that they’re showing signs of developmental or nervous system differences. Here are some common reasons children can be loud:
- Kids are developing their characters and learning their limits.
- They know that they can’t control everything in their lives, but one of the things they have control over is their noise level, so they take advantage of it.
- Kids’ energy stores up and sometimes spills out at top volume.
- Young children often show excitement by yelling and making other loud sounds.
- Children mimic their adults. If the adults are loud, so are the kids. It’s not a realistic expectation to think that kids should talk quieter when adults do not.
I tried to get the kids to lower their voices
“Boys, you’re too loud!”
“Can you please go be loud downstairs?”
“I’m getting a headache, please stop yelling.”
“Why are you kids so loud?”
I tried hard to not yell at them. Because I knew that if I did, not only would it give me that headache I was trying to avoid, I’d also have mom guilt.
But no matter what I said and how hard I tried to get their attention, it was as if I was talking to birds. They were too engulfed in their play to pay any attention to me.
This hasn’t happened in a long time, but it was the reality that day, and I was caught off-guard. I wondered why loud things and sudden noise doesn’t affect kids in the same way it affects adults.
I accidentally discovered how to stop a child from screaming for no reason
I needed to get stuff done, so I tried to hide in the kitchen from the loud sound effects and all the background noise my kids were making.
One of the boys ran in to ask me a question. He caught me in the middle of taking a sip of water.
In a loud voice, he asked, “Mom, do you remember yesterday… Mom?” I started coughing before he could finish his question. “Mama, are you okay?” he asked as I choked on the water I was drinking.
I nodded as I tried to clear my throat. “I’m ok,” I said, fully expecting the sound of my voice to fill the kitchen air, but instead, a whisper came out. “What did you need?” I continued whispering.
“Mom, do you remember yesterday we talked about maybe going to the park today?” To my surprise, he was whispering, too.
“Yes, I remember,” I whispered back. “But it’s about to rain, so the park will have to wait until the weather is nicer.”
“Okay,” he whispered and walked out of the kitchen.
I smiled as he walked away. “Did I just crack the code to my child’s noise level?” I thought to myself. I wondered if this trick would work on his brothers.
A few minutes later, the kids came into the kitchen, ready to eat dinner. They continued to talk loudly, and two of them were still screaming for no reason, it seemed.
“Go wash your hands,” I whispered to them. Two boys heard me, whispered, “Okay,” and went to wash their hands.
“Boys, wash your hands,” I whispered to the other two while waving to get their attention. To my surprise, they also whispered their okays and followed their brothers to the bathroom sink.
During dinner, we all had a nice conversation in whispers. Ah, what a nice feeling it was to have some quiet time after so much noise!
As they brought their empty plates to the sink, my 4-year-old motioned with his little finger for me to bend down closer to him, and when I did, he whispered into my ear, “Why are we whispering?”
“Because I just found the volume control for you kids!” I thought excitedly, but answered, “Because mama needs more peace and quiet around here.”
That seemed to satisfy him, and he went on to join his brothers who were already playing together. Our evening was much quieter than our afternoon.
I tried this trick on several occasions since then, it works like a dream.
Does this quiet trick work for toddlers?
When I first discovered this hack, my little girl was a toddler. And while toddlers are in the stage of discovering the world around them, learning about their limits, and still learning to listen, they also love to imitate.
This trick worked on my toddler too. Although whispering doesn’t come naturally to toddlers, she tried doing as I did – talking in whispers.
Next time you want to stop loud children from making excessive noise for no reason, whispering is a great way to lower the level of noise. After whispering, try to use your normal voice to help your kids shift to their normal voice, too.
When simple rules and asking your kiddo to stop being loud doesn’t work, try this trick to teach him to lower his voice and get your child to talk quieter.
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