Should I try something else? (discipline) ?

Question

My son is almost 22 months old and I’m not sure if it’s time for me to try something else or what. When my son does something wrong, I get down to his level, tell him what it is he did wrong and tell him to go to time out. He sits there for almost 2 minutes and then has to hug myself or my husband as his way of saying he’s sorry. He does pretty well for the most part with this method.

However….now when he does wrong, before I even have a chance to speak to him about what he did, he’s already walking over to the time out chair and just sits down with this EVER so innocent look on his face. And he waits….

Is him walking himself to time out a good thing? Or is it defeating the purpose? Should I stick with what we’re doing or try another method?

Any tips are appreciated here….thanks!

Answer 1

I would say at such a young age, discipline should be very light.  At less than two years old, your son probably thinks he is helping you by going to the chair.  I would recommend stopping him from purposefully punishing himself.  Only let him sit a the chair if he has actually done something wrong.  But like I said, at such a young age, right and wrong is nothing to you.  It is just personal pleasure that drives them.  As he gets a few years older, increase the discipline so that by his eight birthday he has a very good concept of right and wrong.  Unless you gave birth to a born psychopath, he should be able to discover right from wrong on his own.

Answer 2

Sounds like you've done a great job! I'd keep doing the same thing. Seems like it's working.

Answer 3

Maybe you should go lighter with him since he might lose his self confidence and feel everything he does is wrong.

Answer 4

To best understand if this is working for you and your little one, ask yourself this: does the time out accomplish anything?  In other words, does it stop him from repeating bad behavior?

I have 3 boys and I have a very hard time with discipline.  Time out works for me but it's always a big drama :)  The bottom line is that is does seem to stop the bad behavior.

It's terrific that your child knows though he's being punished you still love him.  I do the same thing with my kids.  After the time out or punishment, I show them affection and tell them I love them.  They know they did something wrong, but it's important that children understand their parents will love them no matter what.

Something else to consider - are you using time out for everything?  I have various methods of discipline, depending upon the "crime."  For example, when my kids won't share, first I set a time limit on the toy in question.  I set a timer and when "time's up" the other child gets a turn.  If this doesn't work, then the toy gets a "time out" and no one plays with it until the sharing can be worked out.

All in all, it looks like you're doing fine, as long as your little guy understands that he needs to change his behavior not just sit down and wait for Mommy to come hug him :)  Good luck!

Answer 5

Yes it is a good thing ... he realizes that he has done wrong and is willing to accept his tome out. well done.

Answer 6

You are smart for doing this.... so many parents are doing a terrible job at being a parent, but you sounds like you're doing great, so I applaud you.

Keep it up, if you back down or "lighten up", he'll learn that you can be swayed.

Discipline is awesome, at that age, time-out is the BEST tool... keep up the good work, you're doing just fine...  

Answer 7

How about a corner, change his time out place.

Answer 8

Sounds like you need to step it up a level.

Him automatically going to time out means that he knows what he did was wrong, and he knows that his punishment is nothing more then sitting down.

If he threw a toy, take it away and put it up high.(for longer then 2 minutes)

If he hit, send him to his room with no play time . Sitting on the bed

Isolation works wonders.

It's a matter of customizing the punishment with the crime.