Quote:
Originally Posted by The Coppernian One
MattyC just went in the direction of my question, but for those of you that have kids (I don't) and employ time-outs, etc., what do you do if the kid doesn't cooperate? They don't go to their room (or stay there if you take them) or sit quietly in the corner?
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time outs escapism....what we do is march them back to the corner/room/whatever and tell them until they do the timeout they aren't rejoining the fun. Early on it's a struggle to get them to stay there but let me tell you after a couple of times spending a half hour or so from the fun because they aren't doing the time out ends that foolishness. They tend to then stay in timeout and do it properly. Remember the beauty with kids is that they live in the here and now so taking them away from the fun and putting them in timeout is often very effective. Not always but often. As I said it doesn't work great with my daughter anymore but removing things from her does well.
The other ultimate "punishment" for a 3 year old is holding them still. Man do they hate that!
Of course, we don't just punish. We praise, reward and redirect as well which I do think is very important. It just doesn't always work so a more harsh tactic is sometimes needed. I also don't want to make it sound like our kids are forever in timeouts or in trouble. I honestly can't remember the last time I've had to put them in timeout (4 and 6 years old)...probably a few weeks ago. That isn't to say they don't do things wrong but typically it's a "don't do that" and they stop (or "are you allowed to do that? No? And why is that?")