Timeout

Any thoughts out there on the merits of employing timeouts - say, sitting in a chair in a corner - in the course of generating desired behavior or counteracting negative behavior?

Spanking has its place, but my hand could get sore…

1. in my experience (nieces, nephew...) TO works because it very efficiently demonstrates that you are in charge and the kid isn’t.  So you really have to make sure that they actually stay seated for the required period of time for it to work, which could take a while....

   But it also gives the kid (and YOU!) a chance to calm down…

   Good luck.

   Posted by caltechgirl  on  12/30  at  04:57 PM  from 

2. Depends on the kid, I think.  Always works with Katherine, in the sense that she is very, very unlikely to repeat whatever behavior got her there in the first place.  Very rarely did it (or does it) work with Emily, but, nothing phases her...at least enough to cease the behavior from occuring in the future.  She doesn’t have that “Last time I did this, this is what happened, so maybe I shouldn’t do it again” connection.  It does work very well with her though in the “If she doesn’t get out of my sight right now, I might, well, kill her” scenario.  Julia...she hasn’t done anything yet to invoke the “timeout” punishment.

   Posted by Sharon  on  12/31  at  10:51 AM  from  Middleboro, MA

3. My daughter’s not really old enough to be meaningfully punished (16.5 months) except to take away whatever she shouldn’t be touching or make her stop what she shouldn’t be doing.

   I’ve always wondered if exercise would work… like, if you misbehave, you have to do jumping-jacks for five minutes or something… tire the kid out, keep him/her in shape… only problem is, the kid may eventually come to hate exercise.

   Let me know what you figure out, because I’m getting perilously close to the point where my kid’s going to need some form of deterrent.

   Posted by Josh  on  12/31  at  03:30 PM  from  Georgia

4. Thanks for the heads up about the comments!  Should be all set now!

   Posted by Sharon  on  01/01  at  07:07 PM  from  Middleboro, MA
Page 1 of 1 pages

<< Back to main