5 Habits that Make Your Home a Toxic Place

Sometimes, certain habits may transform your home into a toxic place to raise your children. This is why it's important to identify which habits or attitudes can lead to this situation.
5 Habits that Make Your Home a Toxic Place

Last update: 01 July, 2021

An emotionally balanced home results in each member of the family enjoying well-being. Besides, it’s a home where they can find peace, calm, and support. However, there might be certain habits that can make your home a toxic place, and you should try to avoid them.

Living in a toxic home makes people more vulnerable to physical or mental diseases. Furthermore, it makes people want to run away from their homes because staying there makes them feel uncomfortable. Do you want to know what habits can turn your home into a toxic place? Continue reading.

Habits that make your home a toxic place

Home is where children learn their first habits. In addition, they form the type of attachment that’ll define their emotional development in the future. This is why your home must be a place where children feel safe, protected, and loved.

In order to do this, parents must avoid taking their tensions, stress, and everyday concerns to their homes, because those emotions can affect all family members. And, that’s how, even without noticing it, they can transform their homes into toxic places.

Your home a toxic place.

Habits that make your home a toxic place: attitudes you should avoid

There are certain habits and attitudes you should avoid in order to have a balanced and safe home for your children’s development.

Avoid making your home a toxic place: screaming

Many studies have revealed that screaming all the time can permanently affect children’s brain structure. This is due to a lack of combination between the two cerebral hemispheres, which can cause short and long-term emotional and behavioral problems.

When we scream, children assume that that’s the way we’re supposed to communicate with each other. Therefore, they’ll scream at other people whenever they form new relationships. Another result of this attitude is that children may think their parents don’t love them because they scream at them all the time.

What can we do? Set a no screams ruling. In fact, the whole family must understand that if they scream, it doesn’t mean they’re right. As a result, you’ll be promoting active listening and assertive communication.

Tension

There are certain homes where you can feel the tension and hostility present in the environment. There’s no excitement; family members never smile, and they relate to each other in an aggressive way. In fact, they act as if they were enemies. Of course, a place like this can’t make children feel safe and calm.

What can we do? If you notice that your home has become a battlefield, focus on solving the problems instead of finding someone to blame.

Lack of organization

It’s well known that the space where we spend time influences our moods. Therefore, if your home lacks organization, your mind will also be disorganized. This can be quite stressful and it can affect your productivity and the way you process information.

When we talk about lack of organization, we not only refer to the physical space, but also to the rules that organized families must follow. What can we do? Set rules and limits for all family members.

Avoid making your home a toxic place: denigration

If you don’t feel appreciated or valued within your own family, it’ll be very complicated for you to develop a healthy self-esteem and the confidence you need to face life.

Sometimes, parents don’t appreciate or pay attention to their children’s efforts and achievements. In other occasions, children are labeled in a negative way. In this case, parents blame their kids for everything bad that happens at home, so they find it hard to evolve as a person.

Tension at home.

What can we do? Remember that every person is unique and needs to be valued for who they are. Besides, we can’t demand something from them if they’re not ready for it. Instead, we should focus on their strong and weak points and on the characteristics that make them special. Remember that we all have a special characteristic that makes us unique.

Pessimism

All of us, at some point in our lives, can go through a rough time that makes us feel miserable. The real problem begins when our own home becomes a sad and depressing place for one of our family members.

This usually happens with negative and pessimistic people, who end up affecting the whole house.

What can we do? If we adopt a positive attitude, we’ll transmit it to the rest of the family. As a result, we’ll replace those negative attitudes by our positive thoughts. In addition, you should talk to the person and tell them that their negative attitude affects the whole family.

In conclusion, you were able to see what habits can make your home a toxic place. Now, it’s time to solve these problems, in case you experience these situations at home.

Besides, if you think you’re doing something wrong, you can correct your own attitudes. There’s always time to change bad habits.


All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.


  • Wang, M. T. & Kenny, S. (2014) Longitudinal Links Between Fathers’ and Mothers’ Harsh Verbal Discipline and Adolescents’ Conduct Problems and Depressive Symptoms. Child Developmental; 85(3): 908–923.

This text is provided for informational purposes only and does not replace consultation with a professional. If in doubt, consult your specialist.