It may be a
frightening thing for a
child to hear but as a matter of
practice this is one of the
worst punishments you can lay on a kid. Why?
It simply does not
work, that’s why. More often than not it is as much a time out for the
parent as it is for the
kid. Any
kid over the age of 4 will
learn that if they make just enough of a
movement in the corner a
parent will have to stand there for the full
time and
administer to the
punishment. In the end this
reinforces a sense of
power over the
situation to the kid and
frustration to the parent.
To truly get a decent
outcome from a
time out like this you need to
structure it around a
task that does not need constant
monitoring. For instance, if your child is at all
self aware you can have them stand out on the
porch for a certain amount of
time. If they throw a fit it is only
witnessed by the people
outside,
strangers and
neighbors, and in their own minds
loose face. They can not
control the situation. Another
tact is to have them work in the yard on some simple
task, puling
weeds is a good one that works for me.
If you are going to spend the
time to
personally monitor the
time out then at least make it
educational. I have had my kid
read to me for a set amount of time. More often than not she doesn’t want to
stop because she is
enjoying the act of
reading. This has had the effect of her not acting out as much and instead asking to read to us.
In the end you need to know your
kid well enough to know what is causing the
outburst and what they respond to best to
learn different ways of
expressing their
emotions.
And if ths sounds
easy, go get a
kid:)-