Help! when to start time out

mommyaudra

what age did you start this type of discipline of time out or naughty step or corner?

DD will be 2 in June, i want to have DD go to the corner when she missbehaves. i like the way Super Nanny does it on her show but just visited her website and it says to start the naughty step at age 3...any suggestions? did any of you start this early? any comments would be helpful! TIA

AstrosMom

We started way early, maybe even at 11 months. Definitely shortly after her 1st birthday. But DD is (and has always been) very strong-willed/independent/loves to test boundaries. When we could tell she knew what she was doing was wrong (ie we would tell her no and she would look at us and smile and do it anyway) we started the time out process.  At first it didn't really mean that much to her, then she went through a phase were it was the worst punishment ever, now it just depends.  Sometimes she acts like it's the end of the world, sometimes she could care less.  It's different everyday!

As for whether you should start now or not, I think it all depends on the kid.  If you think she is able to understand what's going on and why it's happening then I wouldn't hesitate to start now.  BTW, we always tell DD why she's going to time out and then when the time out is over we ask her why she was in time out and we explain why doing that behavior is not nice/dangerous, and then we have her apologize and we tell her we love her.

Reagan1010

We started around 18 months. It has worked great as a way to redirect DS and get him to focus on something besides his current behavior that got him sent to time out. We also always make sure to give him a warning first as well. 

mrsjengle

We recently tried this technique. We only would use it for times when she openly defies us. However, we found out that she's not ready for a traditional time out. We would spend more time running after her when she would get out of her chair. She turned it into a game. I recently read some recommendations on BabyCenter that said you can modify it by removing them from the situation and sitting with them on the couch/step. This way they get redirection and time to work through their feelings and we don't spend forever chasing her through the house. We haven't tried the modified time out, but other than spanking and time outs, we haven't been able to find any techniques for discipline.