Your parents deserve your respect, even if they aren’t behaving very well, as can sometimes happen as your parents get older and move toward dementia, according to Marlo Sollitto, managing editor at AgingCare.com. Consider how hurt and embarrassed you feel when someone yells at you and realize that your parent can feel that way when you yell. If you wouldn’t yell at a co-worker or friend, don’t yell at your parents. Try to find out what your parent is upset about and work out a solution. If they are angry, try not to take it personally, suggests Sollitto.

When the yelling starts, people stop listening, according to former deputy warden Carl ToersBijns in a Corrections.com article entitled, "Raising Your Voice or Yelling at Someone." If you want your parents to listen to you, don’t yell at them. If your parent is already yelling, try whispering in a calm voice. Your parent might stop yelling long enough to discover if you’re cussing them out or being otherwise disrespectful. The result is that your parent stops to hear what you have to say, and that’s really all your yelling was about anyway. You can set the example for how you should communicate with one another.

If you wouldn’t dream of being physically aggressive to your parent, don’t be psychologically aggressive, advises authors Straus and Carolyn J. Field in a 2003 study published in the “Journal of Marriage and Family.” Yelling, especially when your words are hurtful and demeaning, is a form of psychological aggression. (Ref 3) Your parent is likely to respond in a negative manner and you won’t accomplish what you want.

When you’re frustrated and angry, you can resort to yelling almost before you know it. Instead of yelling, take a time out to get yourself under control by taking a walk or getting respite care for your parent, suggests Sollitto. Take deep abdominal breaths until you feel calmer. Write a letter or email instead of talking to your parent directly, even if you had the letter to your parent instead of mailing it. Address whatever has made you angry and frustrated in specifics, such as, “When you do this, I feel that emotion and I want to behave this way.” Keep your comments focused on the behavior and not your parent’s value or personality.