Temper

Professional golfer Ryan McCormick went to extreme lengths to tame his tongue during the recent Club Car Championship in early April. The hot-headed New Jersey native has been looking for ways to keep his composure during golf events. So during the tournament's second round April 4, McCormick taped his mouth shut. "Been having not-so-fun times this year on the golf course. Pretty angry and mad," McCormick said in a social media video post by the Korn Ferry Tour. "I've tried a lot of things, and I figured I'd just shut myself up."

If you find yourself being more impatient than ever before when interacting with people in customer service roles—or if you’ve noticed other people having a shorter fuse and snapping more quickly—you’re not alone. Lines can be a source of anger, frustration, and arguments. Twenty-seven percent of consumers get annoyed by fellow shoppers when in line and 19% of shoppers have even had an argument with a partner or friend in a line.

The vast majority of consumers associate waiting in line with negative emotions. Nearly 67% of the consumers surveyed report feeling impatient, bored, annoyed, frustrated, or disrespected when they have to wait.

Notably, impatience skyrocketed this year (2024)—increasing by 176%. This suggests that consumers are shifting from boredom and annoyance towards impatience. This finding is unsurprising given our current social climate. Technology is increasing expectations for instant gratification while high levels of anxiety are shortening fuses. Surveys have shown that 25% would only wait a maximum of two minutes. Fifty-nine percent would wait no longer than four minutes. Seventy-three percent would abandon their purchase if they had to queue for more than five minutes.

Furthermore, the widespread transition to remote work during the pandemic resulted in reduced face-to-face interaction. And with a decrease in this time spent with our fellow humans, it has likely been more difficult to develop empathy and patience. Too much screen time may have caused “keyboard courage” to bleed into our day-to-day conversations, leaving us more abrupt and even rude in our communications.

Another cause of heightened emotions is the overall challenges people in the world are facing, including polarization, war, the underlying stress of inflation, supply chain issues, or looming economic uncertainty.

All of these factors are pushing people to their limits and resulting in an increase in burnout, frustration, and impatience in their interactions with others.

In today’s digital age, it’s become increasingly common for parents to hand their upset child a smartphone or tablet to calm them down. But could this seemingly harmless practice be hindering children’s emotional development? A new study from researchers suggests that using digital devices as emotional pacifiers may have unintended long-term consequences.

The researchers aimed to understand the relationship between parents using digital devices to regulate their children’s emotions and the development of children’s self-regulatory skills.

Self-regulation is a crucial skill that develops in early childhood. It involves the ability to manage one’s emotions, control impulses, and direct attention. These skills are essential for success in school and later in life. They help children navigate social situations, focus on tasks, and cope with frustration.

Imagine a scenario where a child is having a tantrum in a grocery store. A parent, desperate for a quick fix, hands over their smartphone to distract and calm the child. While this might work in the moment, the study suggests that repeatedly using this strategy could prevent the child from learning how to manage their emotions on their own. Children whose parents often relied on “digital pacifiers” showed more severe emotion-regulation problems, specifically, anger management problems, later in life.

Instead of relying on screens to soothe upset children, parents might consider alternative strategies that help kids learn to manage their emotions. For example, parents could try talking through emotions with their child, using deep breathing exercises, or engaging in a calming activity together like reading a book or coloring. These approaches may take more time and effort in the moment, but they could pay off in the long run by helping children develop crucial self-regulation skills.

Anger is bad for your health in more ways than you think. Getting angry doesn’t just hurt our mental health, it’s also damaging to our hearts, brains, and gastrointestinal systems, according to doctors and research.

For instance, one study in the Journal of the American Heart Association looked at anger’s effects on the heart. It found that anger can raise the risk of heart attacks because it impairs the functioning of blood vessels.

Researchers examined the impact of three different emotions on the heart: anger, anxiety, and sadness. One participant group did a task that made them angry, another did a task that made them anxious, while a third did an exercise designed to induce sadness.

The scientists then tested the functioning of the blood vessels in each participant, using a blood pressure cuff to squeeze and release the blood flow in the arm. Those in the angry group had worse blood flow than those in the others; their blood vessels didn’t dilate as much.

The lead author of the study said, “We speculate over time if you’re getting these chronic insults to your arteries because you get angry a lot, that will leave you at risk for having heart disease.”

Hannah Payne was sentenced to life in prison in December of 2023 for the 2019 shooting death of Kenneth Herring. Payne was officially convicted of felony murder, malice murder, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment.

During the original incident, Payne chased down Herring after witnessing a hit-and-run involving him and another driver on Riverdale Road.

"I just seen her outside hitting on the window. And that’s what made me just grab my phone," recalled Cameron Williams, a truck driver who recorded footage of the interaction. This evidence eventually aided the prosecution in Payne’s conviction. Williams said that he saw Payne "yelling, hitting on the window, hitting on the door.”

According to authorities, Payne initially called 911 after witnessing the traffic incident, but ignored the advice of the dispatcher who told her not to follow Herring’s car. After pursuing Herring, she got into a confrontation with him, and eventually shot him, fatally wounding him in the stomach. Because of the footage, prosecutors were able to isolate images of Payne holding her gun, standing next to Herring’s truck.

Payne later told police that Herring had shot himself with her gun; the jury, however, did not agree with her version of events. It took them only two hours of deliberation before they rendered a guilty verdict. During the sentencing, Payne fought back tears as Judge Jewell Scott handed down her life sentence with a possibility of parole.

“Mr. Herring was a human worthy of saving,” the prosecutor said, when petitioning the court for the maximum allowable sentence. “He had a family to go home to.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Incidents of road rage are becoming all too common as people struggle with mental health issues, the deterioration of society, and taking justice and retribution into their own hands in this age of lawlessness.

Sometimes, all it takes is a minor inconvenience to ruin your whole day. It has been revealed that the most stressful time of the day is 7:23am. On average people will experience three dramas each day, with the first drama of the day typically happening by around 8:18am. These stressful situations could be anything from being stuck in traffic or waking up late, to spilling things on clothing, and tripping in public which are also likely to make people feel foul.

The research found that tiredness, an interrupted night's sleep, and a busy day at work were among the top causes of such dramas. Zuzana Bustikova, a spokesperson for a wellbeing brand, said: "Often when we think 'drama' we think big, but the research shows how much of an impact seemingly small niggles can have on our daily moods.”

According to the survey, the following are some of the top everyday “dramas” adults experience:

• Getting stuck in traffic
• Spilling something down clothing (food, drink, make-up, toothpaste)
• Waking up late and being late for work
• Struggling to find a parking space
• Forgetting bags at the supermarket
• Public transport being cancelled
• Sending a text message to the wrong person
• Checking your bank balance and having less money than you expected
• Clothes you want to wear being in the wash
• Realizing an email you thought you’d sent is in your “drafts”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Taking small steps to build our emotional resilience, even on those difficult days, can make a huge difference in helping us live life to the fullest. For a Christian these small steps can include having a regular quiet time with God every morning. This will center our thoughts on him and give us resources to meet life’s frustrations and stresses that are inevitable each day.

Author Pete Greig shares the following story in How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People:

I was walking the darkened streets near our house one night, reviewing the day before bed, remembering how I'd driven Sammy [my wife] and the boys to the cinema and how someone had cut us off. I'd yelled at him. Sammy had yelled at me. I'd yelled at Sammy. Hadn’t she seen how dangerously the other guy was driving? Had she forgotten that we had vulnerable children in the car? Didn't she know there was such a thing as righteous anger? She'd gone silent.

We arrived at the cinema. The film had been great. Life had moved on. No big deal. But now in the stillness of these darkened streets, as I returned to that moment, it seemed that God was siding with my wife. I sighed. "Okay, I'm sorry. I admit it: I lost my temper. I shouldn't have yelled at that driver. Lord, help me to be more patient tomorrow."

There was a pause before I sensed him telling me to apologize to our sons. This thought annoyed me, and I found myself protesting. "That's ridiculous. You're making this bigger than it is. My kids don't need me to apologize. They won't even remember such a trivial incident. Do you have any idea what the traffic is like around here?"

Ten minutes later, I was sitting on Hudson's bed. "Son, I just want to say sorry to you for something. Do you remember me yelling at that man on the way to the cinema?" Immediately, he nodded. "I shouldn't have done that. Mum was right. Christians are supposed to be patient and kind. I set you a bad example. That's not how I want you to grow up and treat people. I'm sorry." Right away, he put his arms around my neck and squeezed me tight. "That's okay, Dad.”

A minute later, I was in the room next door, making the same speech to Danny, and the same thing happened. He immediately knew exactly what I was talking about. He hadn't forgotten either. He listened to my apology and didn't think it was crazy. He hugged me and told me it was okay. It's a silly, mundane story, and that's the whole point. We are changed--conformed into the likeness of Christ--through a thousand small choices like these.

A playground scene turned tragic after a woman was shot and killed after a basketball game. Cameron Hogg, 31, is facing murder charges in connection to the shooting of Asia Womack, 21. Womack had recently defeated Hogg in pickup basketball, and witnesses say the game was heated and that there was plenty of trash talk on the court. Later that day, Hogg drove his truck to another location where Womack and another friend were seated outside, watching a football game on TV. When Hogg got out of his truck, Womack stood up, ready for another confrontation. But instead of saying a word, Hogg pulled out a firearm and shot her four times.

Her mother Andrea lamented the killing, noting that the two had been friends. She said, ”He’d pull up to my house, pick her up. They’d ride together, eat food together, take his phone calls, give him money in jail, and you turn around and kill her? It was senseless for him to kill his friend over a basketball game … Not even the basketball game itself, but the words that were spoken after the game."

After witnesses identified Hogg in a photo lineup, police arrested him without incident.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Society is witnessing increasing acts of spontaneous rage and extreme violence. This highlights the words of Scripture which describes that “the works of the flesh are evident…strife, jealousy, fits of anger” (Gal. 5:19-21) and confirms that “in the last days terrible times will come. For men will be abusive … unloving, unforgiving … without self-control … brutal” (2 Tim. 3:1-5).

In CT magazine, Greg Stier shares his journey from a violent dysfunctional family background to the salvation of his extended family:

To my five-year-old self, it was a perfect afternoon. No gunshots, no gang-filled cars creeping by looking for trouble as they often did in our neighborhood. Everything was good that day—at least until a shiny, new car pulled up. It was Paul, one of the men my Ma had married. He had up and left us without warning, and we hadn’t heard from him in months.

Ma caught sight of him out the kitchen window. Cursing like a sailor, she hunted down our baseball bat. Charging out of the house, she started swinging at the headlights and the windshield. When he peeled off, I knew we’d never see him again.

Instantly, I realized two things: One, I would never disobey Ma again. And two, something had ignited a rage in her that consistently led to incidents like this. Years later, my grandma told me what that something was.

Ma was a partier, and I was a result of one of the parties. She got pregnant. Instead of facing her conservative Baptist parents, Ma drove from Denver to Boston, under the pretense of visiting my uncle Tommy and aunt Carol. But she was really there to get an illegal abortion. Tommy and Carol talked her out of it.

Until my grandma told me I was almost aborted, I had wondered why Ma would often cry when she looked at me while reproaching herself: “I’m a bum. I’m nothing but a no-good bum.” But after I learned her secret, I understood—not only her tears, but her rage toward men. It was a shame-fueled rage.

My entire family was filled with rage. Ma had five bodybuilding, street-fighting brothers, whom the North Denver mafia nicknamed “the crazy brothers.” You know it’s bad when even the mafia thinks your family is dysfunctional.

My Baptist grandparents took me to church, and one day in “big church,” everything suddenly made sense. The preacher shared how Jesus died for our sins and rose again. He said that if we put our faith in him, we would be saved. At the age of eight, I trusted in Christ as my Savior.

Miraculously enough, at around the same time, God was working renewal within my family as well. A hillbilly, church-planting preacher nicknamed Yankee reached out to Uncle Jack, the toughest of the “crazy brothers,” on a dare. When Yankee knocked on the door, Jack had a beer can in each hand. Surprisingly, he listened to Yankee’s gospel presentation.

“Does that make sense?” Yankee asked Jack. “H***, yeah!” was his sinner’s prayer. In just one month, Jack brought 250 people to church, wanting them to hear this same good news that gave him hope. One by one, all my uncles came to Christ. But the person most on my heart was Ma.

When I tried telling her about Jesus, she would shut me down. She’d say, “God can’t forgive me. You don’t know the things I’ve done.” Finally, at the age of 15, I marched into the kitchen and made Ma listen to the gospel. “You mean to tell me that if I trust in Jesus, he forgives me for every sin?” she asked. “Even the really bad ones?” “Yeah, Ma. That’s why he died on the cross,” I explained.

She took a drag of her cigarette, stared off into space for a moment, and said, “I’m in.” And when my Ma said she was in, she was in.

At age eight, I had met the Father I’d never known, the Father who would never leave me nor forsake me, the Father who changed the trajectory of my life and the lives of my whole family.

Editor’s Note: Greg Stier is the founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries. He is the author of Unlikely Fighter: The Story of How a Fatherless Street Kid Overcame Violence, Chaos, and Confusion to Become a Radical Christ Follower.

The issue of verbal and physical abuse is a problem in high school sports around the country. As an example, a 22 old-year-old man from Polk County, FL, disagreed with the umpire and beat him up. More and more referees are leaving. A study conducted by the National Association of Sports of Officials discovered that adult misbehavior contributed to 75% of high school referees quitting their jobs.

How did we get here?

Psychologist Richard Weissbourd says, “I think it’s because sometimes parents are wanting to compensate for their shortcomings or live out their own fantasies about sports. I think it’s the degree to which we are becoming less communal and more tribal and more individual.”

He goes on to offer us a solution to this prevailing problem. It starts with promoting the value of being part of a community and the importance of both winning and losing. Weissbourd, a secular psychologist, recognizes the benefits of religious practices, instilling values like sacrifice, gratitude, morality, empathy, and the obligation to care for each other. The competitiveness of sport ought to be a catalyst for both personal growth and building community.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Scripture teaches us to use discernment when making judgment calls and to deal with our faults first before judging others (Matt. 7:1-6).

Edward Matthews had a problem with some of his neighbors, and it seemed based on his language and demeanor that he didn’t like their race. At least that’s how it appeared when a video of a confrontation went viral between Matthews, a middle-aged white man, and several younger Black men. Unfortunately, Matthews’ inability to keep his temper got the best of him when he blurted out his home address during the filmed confrontation, taunting his neighbors to “come [bleep]ing see me.”

In a way, Matthews got what he asked for. Before police eventually charged him with bias intimidation and harassment, hundreds of people gathered outside his residence to demand his arrest. As police led him from the house into a cruiser, Matthews was pelted by the crowd with water bottles and other foreign objects. Neighbors said that this behavior was common with Matthews and that they had been pleading for police intervention for months.

Kyle Gardner, a spokesman for the local police department, deplored Matthews’ behavior. “Nobody is as upset about this as we are. This is not what we want in our town.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

There are consequences for the words and ideas that we put out into the world. Our words have the power to uplift or tear down; we must use that power wisely.

As the maxim goes, it’s better to be silent and thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt. There’s at least one hipster-looking guy who will probably, in the future, take that to heart.

The MIT Technology Review recently published an article about a study out of Brandeis University on something called “the hipster effect,” the idea that a group of self-proclaimed nonconformists will eventually coalesce around similar behaviors and styles. It’s a partial explanation for the common idea that many hipster men tend to look alike--often bearded with flannel shirts and knit beanie caps.

After the story ran, editors received an email from an angry reader. He was upset about what he perceived to be unfair generalizations about people in his demographic, but also because he claimed to be the man in the cover photo and said the Review never obtained his permission to use his likeness.

Editor-in-chief Gideon Lichfield and his team quickly contacted Getty Images, the stock photo provider, to ascertain whether the model in the photo had signed a release form authorizing its use. Getty Images confirmed that the model in the photo was a different person than the email complainant. The man responded "Wow, I stand corrected, I guess. I and multiple family members, and a childhood friend pointed it out to me, thought it was a mildly photo-shopped picture of me … Thank you for getting back to me and resolving the issue."

In a tweet, Lichfield summed up the situation: “The guy who'd threatened to sue us for misusing his image wasn't the one in the photo. He'd misidentified himself. All of which just proves the story we ran: Hipsters look so much alike that they can’t even tell themselves apart from each other.”

Potential Preaching Angles: First impressions matter less to God than a thorough examination of the truth. Fools who insist on speaking up often end up proving their critics correct.

For decades, the informal consensus surrounding high school football has been that the top qualification for coaching is toughness. The image of a hard-nosed football who yells, snarls and cusses in practices and on the sideline is so common as to be cliché. But slowly, that's changing.

Fictional coaches are part of the trend. Iconic roles like Denzel Washington's Coach Boone in Remember the Titans and Kyle Chandler's Coach Taylor in NBC's Friday Night Lights series have shown audiences that successful football coaching, especially at the high school level, requires emotional intelligence as well as toughness. But that lesson is also sinking in for actual coaches.

Lou Racioppe, a 20-year veteran head football coach for Merona High in Merona, New Jersey, was relieved of his duties after an internal investigation into his coaching practices. Parents said Merona players were asked a series of questions regarding Racioppe's coaching style, including questions about running as a form of punishment, whether players received adequate hydration, and if or how often the coach used profanity or grabbed their face masks. The investigation prompted an outpouring of support during a subsequent school board meeting from parents, boosters and players.

John Fiore, is the head football coach for Montclair High School in Montclair, New Jersey. His Montclair Mounties are four-time state champions, and in 2013 Fiore was named New York Jets High School Coach of the Year.

Fiore, a contemporary of Racioppe, at one point considered himself similarly "old-school" in his approach to coaching. But gradually, he changed his approach. His practices as an 18-year-coaching veteran looking nothing like his rookie coaching days at Spotswood High. "My kids from Spotswood watch me coach. They'll tell every one of these guys I've turned soft," Fiore says.

In a class called "Coaching Principles and Problems," John McCarthy, adjunct professor at Montclair State University, encourages his coaches-in-training to think of themselves as teachers. "Would you curse at a kid in your Spanish class?" he asks. "Would you hit a [student] in your Spanish class or your math class? Of course you wouldn't."

While Fiore admits that he doesn't feel as supported as he used to, he and Professor McCarthy both recognize that coaches must adapt to the standards of the communities they serve. "Here's what I tell my kids," McCarthy says. "Everything in life is subject to change, so why should coaching be any different?"

Preaching angles: Leaders must learn from each other, repentance is the natural outgrowth of continual introspection and accountability, kindness is just as powerful a motivator as fear.

In an article for Christianity Today, sociologist and researcher Brad Wilcox has investigated the claim that evangelical Protestantism is bad for marriage and "good" at fostering domestic violence. Wilcox admits, "Domestic violence is still present in church-going homes, and Christian clergy, counselors, and lay leaders need to do a much better job of articulating clear, powerful messages about abuse," but he also responds the question, "Do traditional evangelical marriages lead to abuse?"

The answer is complicated, since some research suggests that gender traditionalism fuels domestic violence. … In general, however, the answer to these questions is "no." In my previous book, Soft Patriarchs, New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands, I found that women married to churchgoing evangelical men—compared to women married to men in other major religious traditions or women married to unaffiliated men—report the highest levels of happiness. Their self-reports were based on two markers: "love and affection you get from your spouse" and "understanding you receive from your spouse." This same demographic of women also report the highest levels of quality couple time.

My newer [research] reveals similar findings. Men and women who attend church together are almost 10 percentage points more likely to report that they are "happy" or "very happy" in their relationships, compared to their peers who attend separately or simply don't attend religious services at all. On average, then, evangelicals (as well other religious believers in the United States) who attend church regularly enjoy higher quality marriages compared to their less religious or secular peers.

Novelist William Giraldi, a contributing editor to The New Republic, wrote an essay on the modern phenomenon of online hate mail, most often found in the comments section below an article. Comments often devolve into hate-filled insults, but Giraldi draws some conclusions that Christians could agree with. First, Giraldi writes that hate mail proves that, "People are desperate to be heard, to make some sound, any sound, in the world, and hate mail allows them the illusion of doing so. Legions among us suffer from the [boredom] and [unhappiness] of modernity, from the discontents of an increasingly [isolated] society."

According to Giraldi hate mail also means that at least someone is listening to your viewpoints—even if they hate you for it. Giraldi writes, "Part of a writer's [we could insert Christian here] job should be to dishearten the happily deceived, to quash the misconceptions of the pharisaical … to unsettle and upset. If someone isn't riled by what you write, you aren't writing truthfully enough. Hate mail is what happens when you do."

Possible Preaching Angles: Jesus promised that we would be hated for his name's sake. Even if we speak the truth in love, some people will still be unsettled and riled by what we write or say.

We all know bad manners are toxic. But new research now shows that bad manners can kill. In this study, when doctors spoke rudely to their staff, both accuracy and performance suffered. The medical teams exposed to bad behavior and nasty comments demonstrated poorer diagnostic and procedural performance than those who were not exposed to incivility.

As the lead researchers commented: "Relatively benign forms of incivility among medical staff members—simple rudeness—have robust implications on medical team collaboration processes and thus on their performance as a team."

Rudeness and lack of kindness undermine people's ability to think clearly and make good decisions. It steals confidence and weakens motivation.

Editor's Note: On a positive note, we could assume that there is just as much power for good in simple and ordinary acts of kindness and gentleness.

Robinson Cano is an all-star second baseman who left the New York Yankees at the end of the 2013 season to take a 10 year, 240 million dollar contract with the Seattle Mariners. When Cano returned to New York for the first time as a Mariner in April of 2014, everyone knew that he would get booed by Yankee fans for leaving.

Before the game, he made an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon." They took a cardboard cutout of Cano to the streets of New York and encouraged Yankee fans to practice booing Cano in front of the cutout. What these fans didn't realize is that the real Cano was standing behind the cardboard cutout, waiting to surprise the unsuspecting fans.

The reactions of the fans on the street were telling. While they think they are booing a cardboard cutout, they are merciless. They boo and shake their fists, telling Cano he is not welcome, and that he should go back home to Seattle. But then Cano comes out from behind the cutout and in mid-sentence they completely change their demeanor. They begin smiling, they run to shake his hand, and even give him a hug. One man goes from saying, "Boo! You suck!" to "Hey, welcome back to New York!" all in one breath.

How often are we willing to speak poorly of someone behind their back or when there are seemingly no repercussions, but then act much differently when we are with someone face to face?

An unusual brawl broke out in a Florida courtroom as a judge and an assistant public defender came to blows. Video footage clearly shows the judge, John Murphy, instigating the fight with public defender Andrew Weinstock. The pair started arguing about whether Weinstock's client would waive his right to a speedy trial. Judge Murphy was trying to convince the defender to waive, but the defense lawyer was not having any of it. Judge Murphy said, "You know, if I had a rock, I would throw it at you right now. Just sit down." Weinstock responded, "You know I'm the public defender. I have a right to be here and I have a right to stand and represent my client." On the video, the judge then appears to ask Weinstock to come to the back hallway, an area where there are no cameras, which is where the fight apparently broke out.

"if you want to fight, let's go out back," Murphy tells Weinstock before the pair head off camera. There were no images of the fight, but the video does capture sounds of scuffling and several loud thuds. Two deputies broke up the fight, and the attorney was immediately reassigned to another area so he and the judge would not have to interact with each other. Judge Murphy agreed to take a leave of absence so he could seek anger management counseling.

Matthew Mitchell explains how he uses a simple object lesson to illustrate "the principle of overflow," which simply means that our words overflow from what's already in our hearts.

I held up a bottle of water and then poured the water out on the platform. Then I asked our church family, "Why is there now water on the floor?" Everyone laughed nervously because the answer was so obvious.

Then I asked, "But why is there water on the floor and not Pepsi or Kool-Aid?" Now besides the fact that I would have gotten into major trouble with the custodian if I had poured Pepsi or Kool-Aid on the carpet, the truth is, there was water on the floor because there had been water in the bottle. Similarly, Jesus said, "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." What's inside us determines what comes out of us.

Second-hand stress is a big problem for kids. In a survey, researcher Ellen Galinsky interviewed more than 1,000 children in grades 3-12 and asked them, "If you were granted one wish to change the way your mother's/father's work affects your life, what would that wish be?" Kid's answers were striking. They rarely wished for extra face time with their parents. Instead, they wished that their parents would be less stressed out and tired. But the parents in the survey were completely out of touch. Virtually none guessed that their kids would use their one wish to reduce their stress.

Galinsky then asked the children to grade their parents on a dozen scales. Overall, the parents came out with high marks from their kids. Moms had an overall GPA of 3.14 and dads got an average grade of 2.98. But anger management was most parents' Achilles heel. More than 40 percent of kids gave their moms and dads a C, D, or F for "controlling his/her temper when I do something that makes him/her angry." That was the worst rating on the parental report card.