Time out?

[Bluebabe75]

Matthew announced this afternoon that he was in trouble and needed to go to Time Out (he hadn't actually done anything wrong :shock: ). He then took himself off to his bedroom and sat down quietly on his beanbag, and when I went in said sorry and gave me a hug....

After a bit of questionning, he said that he 'hurt Megan at nursery' and that 'Megan hurt Matthew' and they both had to 'go in time out' (am not entirely sure what happened, obviously at just under 2 he can't tell the whole story :happyno: )

So, he obviously understands the concept and I'm thinking maybe I should start using it more at home... has anyone got any advice? I think I will use the beanbag in his room as that is where he went today.

[sparkliness]

Aww.

If you are going to use it I would use a warning system, so 2-3 strikes and he goes.

Just seen your weight loss stats - well done!

[Chickenlips]

We do time out - not sure how effective it is as she seems to enjoy sitting in the stairs, chatting away to herself :grin:. To be honest, I think I need to find a new way of disciplining her as it doesn't seem to be working for her.

Last night, we took her comfort blanket away, first time she hadn't slept with it for 3 years and it definitely did the trick.

[Bluebabe75]

Just seen your weight loss stats - well done!

Thanks :flowers: (although have eaten two bits of cake today so not a good day diet-wise :oops: )

Warning system is a good idea :thumb: He is usually really good but there are times when i think we might need to have a bit more consistency with discipline so fingers crossed!

[Lu Lu]

No advice but I just have to say that Matthew always sounds like such a lovely little boy. I don't believe that he would ever need the Time Out spot!

Can we swap? (please)

[Mrs B]

Agree that a warning system is good. I would still try to limit use of Time Out; we found that it stopped being effective as it wasn't a big deal, so now it only gets used for serious things like hitting or dangerous actions (touching the cooker etc).

[cheeky_biscuit]

It works well with us, especially as it is reinforced at nursery. She gets 1 warning and then time out (depending on offense, at nearly 4 she won't get a warning if she is aggressive with her baby sister, that's a straight time out).
Consistancy is th ekey - oh and picking your battles.

[jubiedoo16]

Awww Mattthew is so adorable:lurve:

From our POV we just using warnings of circumstances, like "if you do that agian this willl happen" so you could say you will go to time out. Thankfully we havent had to use consequences too often but ours is usually you go to tiime out in bed, as the behaviour usually stems from tiredness.

[Bluebabe75]

Thanks for all the replies :flowers:

Lu Lu - sorry, I'm not swapping, I'd miss him too much :lol:

He's basically really good anyway so I think warnings and using it when really necessary should work for us. He does bite and hit sometimes and he has a bit of a destructive streak (hitting the TV with his cricket bat is a current favourite) so hopefully it will help.