Time-out method to discipline your kid: Is there a right way?

Time-out Method To Discipline Your Kids… Is There A Right Way To Do It? – Written by Kell Kelly from All Mum Said.

Parents are under scrutiny all the time for the way they choose to discipline their children. Some prefer gentle parenting, some utilise the time-out method and others will be more stern. The thing that makes it difficult, is knowing what will work for you and your child.

Time-out method – is it working for you?

The time-out method is one that many families use. For some families it works. And works well. For other though… not so much. If you are using time-out as a discipline strategy and it isn’t working, it is possible that you could be making a simple mistake. Here are a few common mistakes that parents make when using time-out!

Time-out threat

If you threaten your kids with a time-out, after a while they will stop believing that you will actually enforce this discipline. This will then render the time-out useless. You can avoid this by implementing the time-out method only when required.

Duration in time-out

You could unknowingly be putting your child in time-out for too long or too little amount of time. The time-out length should correlate directly to how old your child is. The younger they are, the shorter the duration – for example, 2 minutes for 2 year olds, 3 minutes for 3 year olds, etc. This is just a guide as not all children will sit, calm and be quiet from the moment they are placed in time-out.

Time-out location

If you make your child have time-out in their bedroom, STOP! They can have way too much fun in there. Time-out should mean they are missing out on playing and in most cases interacting with others. If they are not actually being kept from having fun they will not learn anything.

Talk to them

By talking to your child when they are in time-out, even if it is discuss their behaviour, it is taking away from the purpose of a time-out. They are there to reflect on why they have been placed in time-out and this should be void of any attention from you. If you need to discuss their actions, do it after their time-out is over.

We all try our best to get this whole discipline thing right but we are all still learning. We will make mistakes, we won’t always get it right… but when used right, the time-out method can be an effective discipline strategy.

Do you use the time-out method? How do you make it work?

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