When Maya was in her 2's I would have told anyone that time outs do not work for her. Maya refused to sit, she talked back, and would do whatever it took to get out of the situation. She would win over and over again as I didn't know what to do to make them work. I assumed time outs didn't work for her but then again daycare used time outs and they did work. It made me think maybe it was the way we were conducting the time outs. I finally made the decisions that time outs were going to work and I was very determined so I explained the consequences to Maya and have stayed consistent in applying them.
We now count to 3 and give Maya a time out if she does not do what is asked of her by the time we get to 3. Thankfully the counting works and we rarely have to give her a time out. But when we do give her a time out, it is a task and takes time. First she must sit on the time out step and must sit there for 3 full minutes (1 minute per year). If Maya gets up, talks back, or cries hysterically we start the 3 minutes over again. We also use the microwave timer so Maya can see us set it and can hear it go off. There are many times where we must started the timer over a half dozen times. Once the timer goes off, we talk about what happened and what should have happened. We make up and go on with our day.
Are we perfect, no. Not even close. I just think time outs can work with a lot of determination and will power.
What do you all think? Am I crazy? Is there a much better way to discipline our young people? What works for you?
