Time out.............?

Question

I have just given my 20 month old son his first time out sessoin and need some pointers.. We were playing on the punge and he threw his little wooden box at my head it smacked me in the cheek adn gave me a nasty cut, I smacked hi on the hand ( i was fuming I am just getting over other injuries he has given me) adn I got his blue chair and put it downt he end of the hallway facing the wall, he was crying and I sat him on the chair and said time out we throw things its not nice. He sat on the chair fora whole 2 minutes didnt move but he was crying. When the 2 min was up I went up to him and said "are you sorry" (even though he doesnt know what it means and he gave me a cuddle and I explained why we dont throw things and now everything is fine (except for my face lol) is this what I shouldve done, what are the rules with time out.

Can you give me the steps you do?

Answer 1

We give my daughter a time out if she hits, throws an item at us or has just gotten so upset over something that she needs to me removed from the situation. We don't give her a time out for throwing something on the floor or something, we don't think its wrong because its not hurting anyone. We have a loud timer that you can buy fro your kitchen that dings when it goes off. We put her in for 2 mins and she crys but when it goes off she knows its time to get up we got to her and get down to her level and explain to her what she did wrong, tell her we love her and give her a kiss and a hug. We then send her off on her way to play. Dont over use the time out, i think if hes hurting you or some one then its a time out. If hes overly upset and just needs to be removed from the situation as well then we do that. If he is doing something unsafe try to get him to do something else. If it becomes a game for him and he knows he shouldn't be doing that then that i think should also become a time out. We have a special seat for her to sit on when she does have a time out so that she doesnt get worried when we get a diffrent chair out. She does sometimes play with it but we never place her on it UNLESS we have moved it from where she gets time outs. It sounded like you did a wonderful job.

Answer 2

Sounds like you did a pretty good job for a first time-out!

You isolated him away from the fun, told him why he was being isolated, and then left him in time-out alone. After two minutes, you returned, made sure he knew you loved him (with a cuddle) and reminded him of why he was put in time-out.

Just keep in mind the one minute per year rule...one minute of time out for each year they have (so your son should only be in time-out for a minute, not two, but he is close enough to two years that two minutes is acceptable).

I know time-outs can be really hard to do, but you did a good job for a first time!

I would like to suggest that you buy a small stool or chair that is  only for time-outs. Call it the Naughty Chair/Stool, and when he needs a time-out, walk him over to the Naughty Stool, tell him why he's there, then walk away for his 1-2 minutes (more as he gets older).

If he gets up (which I'm surprised he didn't, but I'm sure he will some time in the future), don't say a word, just walk him back to the naughy stool, sit him there and walk away.

Remember to always tell the child at the end of the time-out that you love them and remind them of what they should do next time (try to keep it positive, such as "Blocks are for stacking, not throwing" as opposed to "No throwing")

Hope that helps, and keep up the good work!

Answer 3

Sounds good to me! Wish my little guy responded to the naughty chair like that.

I would use it whenever discipline is required, though for smaller incidences, maybe give 1 warning and then send him to the chair. But for throwing stuff at your head - straight there!!

Answer 4

Just fine. As long as you never cave in when he gets older you'll be fine. Put neosporinon the cut.

Answer 5

Don't ever give in, stick to it no matter what he tries to do.  You get the chair you want to be the timeout chair and you use it every time.  He sits there until he is quiet, sometimes this takes away especially in the beginning.  It is good that he didn't move so really it was ok that you let him up as long as he didn't move from the chair and doesn't start screaming or begging to get up or anything.  Then when he gets up you can either say "are you sorry" or you can just leave it alone because the discipline is already done.  Stick to the timeouts every time so he knows you won't back down no matter how much he begs and while he is in timeout don't talk to him because he shouldn't be able to watch tv or have anyone showing him attention while he is in timeout.  A great book is called "Incredible Years" it is full of a step by step discipline guide to follow for things and gives great examples of problems that may occur.  

Answer 6

sounds like you did fine...as another comment said make sure you do it right afterwards or else he wont know why he is getting punished.

the only other pointer i can give is to be strict about the time out..dont cave in because he wont stop crying..its best to wait until they have stopped because they can actually think about it for a second..then always sit him down afterwards and explain to him what he did on his level of understanding. now is a good time to try and teach him his manners like apologizing please thank you ect.  one last thing..make sure you calm down before smacking or else you could hit him harder than you really meant to.

sounds like you did well momma..dont worry

Answer 7

We give out son time-outs based on his age and crime. If he hits the dogs he gets 3 minutes. If he curses at us it's 6.

We also wait for him to stop crying before he gets up. It gives him a chance to settle down before he gets up and causes more Mayhem.

I think you handled it very well. Good job!

Answer 8

it sounds like you handled it fine to me, its easier to discpline kids if you do it immeadiately after the event otherwise they dont know what they have done. Im sure he didnt mean to hurt you but good on you for putting your foot down.