How do you start timeouts?

mrs.teacher_99

I can't think of a good way to "introduce" timeouts.  LO is purposefully doing things that he knows are wrong and I think he can handle learning there is a consequence.  However, I don't want to do timeouts in his room, but I also know he will not sit somewhere in a timeout on his own. 

So, how did you start doing timeouts? 

Kadyra

We just started pulling him away from wherever he was misbehaving and putting him in an area in our kitchen that has nothing nearby-- it's a section of wall where he can' reach anything and we just deposit him in front of it.  The first time we did it, we told him to stay there.  And he did. He just cried.  He cries whenever he goes into time out, but oh well.  We only keep him there for like 2-3 minutes because I think any longer than that at 2 1/2, he will forget why he's being punished and then won't understand why he's being isolated.  I think he was about 18 months when we started time outs.

waTracy

For timeouts, we have two places. One upstairs in a corner in a hallway, and one downstairs on the bottom step. Because my daughter is 2, she gets two minutes. I used my smart phone and put the timer on and she can watch it tick down. Sometimes she sits, other times I have to put her back in and she cries and is defiant. I try my best to not make eye contact and she doesn't get any security items. When the time is up, I get down to her level and talk to her making sure that she understands why she was in time out...she needs to tell me. And she needs to make it right with a sorry and a hug and kiss. She's at the point now where time outs aren't happening as much and if she's done something wrong, we talk to her right away and she tells us she needs to say sorry...even if it's not cleaning up when she's been asked. Of course she still has her moments of not listening. With timeouts for her don't work, I start taking away toys...she gets timeouts from her favorites. This does the trick too!  Good luck!

MammaBear81

When they were little we started with a warning first, "throw a toy again and you will get a time out" and if they did it again they would go to the time out spot.  We have a split level house so we have three spots.  We put them in the spot and said "you are in time out for 2 minutes for throwing a toy" and stepped away.  Right now DD2 will cry and sit there, as they get older sometimes they test the boundaries and get up.  If they do I pick them up, put them back (no speaking to them) and start the time again.  I've had to do a time our for 45 minutes before (for my 4 year old) but after that he realized that he wasn't going to win and realized that he would rather just sit for 4 minutes quietly.  As they get older there are no warnings as they know what is expected of them.

We don't do time outs for everything, mostly something that would hurt themselves or another person.  We haven't gotten to any name calling issues yet, I would imagine if that happens repeatedly that we would enforce a time out along with a loss of a privilege (for older ones).  GL

ETA: the general "rule of thumb" is one minute for each year.

rosiemomma

https://www.askdrsears.com/topics/discipline-behavior/10-time-out-techniques

this was a big helper! 

Torani

Just start doing them.  He'll figure it out.  We put DS on a chair in a room that we are not in.  I started by standing in the doorway (where I was behind him) and told him to stay on the chair and if he moved, the time started over.  Now I can be in the next room and he stays put.  We do one minute for each year of his age (started out with 30s and built up though).  We only do timeouts if he hurts someone and does not say sorry or is extremely disrespectful ("hurts" our feelings).  Once timeout is over, he has to say sorry to the person he hurt and kiss them better.  If he does not, back to timeout.  We had to do it a lot at first, but now the threat of the timeout works more often than not.  We have had to give him one I think once in the last month.