We are starting to use time-outs with Sammi (almost 2) and are not sure where the "time-out" place should be. I hesitate to use her toddler bed (which she is not currently sleeping in consistently, still in a crib at night and most naps). I'm specifically looking for what special place or object did you use for the time-out?
I wanted to mention that the use of time-outs is for offenses that nothing else has worked. Redirection works for all of about 2 seconds before she is doing it again and again and again. She is actually a very well behaved little girl and is seldom in trouble, but there are certain things that she just will not listen to.
We use the bottom step of the stairs. There's usually one of those in every house, so if we ever need to administer a t-o @ my parents or a friends, there's no searching for a good location. Also, its pretty boring there and not much for them to play with or get distracted by -or damage in a tantrum. :-).
We have a "naughty chair" (one of our dining room chairs) that she has to sit in for 3 minutes. During those 3 minutes, we do not speak to her, but afterwards we very calmly talk about her behavior and what she could do better next time. It has been effective because we don't have a lot of repeats of the same poor behaviors. Like others have stated, we don't use it often. We have friends who do it too much and it doesn't affect the kid any more. I think the MOST important part is the calm talk at the end. I would suggest having your time outs anywhere except her bedroom, and in a place where she can't play or watch TV. good luck!
You can use the bottom step of a staircase, a corner in a hallway, etc. Not her bed or she'll never want to go to sleep there.
We started with a chair in the living room, since it is slightly separated from the toys and activity of me, my husband and our other son. We quickly realized a chair wasn't the best idea. Our 2 1/2 yr old son started climbing on it, standing on his head on it and doing anything and everything else for our attention, while he was time out and we thought it was unsafe. We now use the rug near our front door (we almost never use the front door) and it works well for our 2 yr old and 4 yr old. Our first son always sat in time when he was suppose to but our 2nd is a bit more stubborn and it took me about one week of chasing and putting him back in time out before I could get him to stay there. The consistancy finally paid off.
Good luck!
We do time outs -- they work great for us! I use a chair in our front hall. We can still hear eachother from the kitchen (good for calling them back when time out is over) but the chair is out of my line of sight. I find this works best -- sometimes Mom needs a break from the offending behavior too! I would recommend the 1-2-3 Magic book. I have friends who don't do time outs -- when they come to play and hear me say "1..." "2..." they are stunned by how quickly my children respond and correct themselves. On the rare (now) occasion that we get all the way to "time out" my kids just go straight to the chair and sit in it. The first few times you might have a problem keeping your child in the chair. I found that if you just explain that the time out can't start until they sit in the seat they want to get it over with very quickly. Good luck!
When my son was little, I used to have him stand in the corner or at the fridge. I also used his age as the guide for how long, one minute for each year old. 2 years old = 2 minute timeout. I had to use thid very rarely, as they were very effective.
Good Luck.
We have a chair that we use only for time outs. It is in the corner on the living room. So my daughter isn't completely removed from the family but she is reminded that she did something she wasn't supposed to do and there is a consequence for that. We also do one minute per year of the child. As I am sitting her in time out I explain what the action was that caused the time out (hitting, biting, etc). We don't use time outs often- just as a last resort. Then when her time out is over we tell her again why she had the time out (and have her apologize to whom ever she did the 'naughty' deed to) and then hug her and kiss her. It works for us. We were having a hitting thing going on a while back- she hit me and kicked me continuously. So every time she did it- I dropped her little bottom into that chair and she had a time out. Immediately. It worked. You could see after the first few times- she'd raise her hand to hit- and I could see her start thinking- oh wait this may not turn out good for me. And then she'd put her hand down. It is very rare she's in time out now. Anything other then violence we always redirect, redirect, redirect. But after the 3rd strike of the same offense in a row- time out.
Good luck.
Harvard University School of Education states that time-outs are not effective as they based on removing the child from their community and offering them no stimulus or information of how to correct the incorrect behavior. Psychologists are not recommending time-outs. Redirection is better. If you use a time-out at home it should be in your site with a 2yr old. Tell her she must sit in a chair for five minutes at most because (whatever she did to deserve the time-out) and give the reason why you cannot accept her behavior. Keep it at her level. She is not old enough to fully understand so you need to guide her. In essence what you are doing to redirecting her beavior to a more positive one.
My son will be 2 in July - he does the same thing. I use his booster chair (which is secured to a kitchen chair). I pull the chair to the middle of the kitchen (so he can kick or grab at anything) and buckle him in and I leave the kitchen for just about a minute. It works very well!
We have a little stool where our kids (just turned 4 y.o. twin girls and 2.5 y.o. boy) go for time-out. It's like a child-size chair. It is in a neutral, uninteresting part of the house that is not by any toys or other fun things. We want them to play in their rooms and feel comfortable on their beds, so we have never used their bedrooms or beds as punishment.
