17 mo. old too young for time out?

dpraseutsinh · March 2014

DD knows not to touch a certain laptop. She will touch it while staring right at me and as soon as I say 'we dont touch the laptop, its for daddys work" DD will start smashing all the keys violently until I get up and remove her from the situation. Would time outs be appropriate at this point? If there are any other things I could do please let me know. Thanks!

jnnfrrose6 · March 2014

It may be too young to be effective, but we've started "time outs." I take DS away from whatever he's doing and sit him in our "time out spot." I have to sit with him (usually facing him), and we don't sit for long. At first he doesn't get it, but does get upset when he tries to move away and I don't let him. I talk to him about why he is there and when time is up (30 secs-1 min), I make sure to give him a hug and explain again why we just did that.

Sure, he doesn't necessarily connect the two things quite yet, but I'd rather start now with the consistency than just trying to redirect continually or taking away the item in question. We don't get to this point, either, until at least 3 attempts to redirect, though. It's not the first thing we go for and I've only had to do it a few times (maybe 4 times ever).

ashiscute · March 2014

Like PP said moving the laptop seems the most logical step to me. My DD was about 18 mos when we started time out and she caught on fast. DS is 18 mos now and has only been put in timeout a few times and only for hitting. I wouldn't say it's gone great for him. But again at this age it is only for hitting someone.

At this age, for that type of behavior I would just ignore.

meglette417 · March 2014

Timeouts most certainly work for us we have been doing it since 12 months. Of course at that age he didn't really get it but he most certainly does now. If he is doing something now I tell him I count to 3 or TO and he either stops the behavior or picks up what I am asking. If you are consistent then it will work. If he knows he shouldn't be doing it then I think TO will work for you. You will have to stay there with him and I don't look at DS because he will try to make me laugh. Now he can also sit in TO by himself and stay there.

traveltheworld · March 2014

I think it depends on the child. You just have to test it out. We have friends who have similar-age children as DS (20 months) and have successfully done the traditional time-out for a few months now. We tried with DS and it didn't work at all. The moment we try to walk him over to the time-out spot, he flops on the ground and starts screaming/crying and that lasts for about 5 - 10 minutes. I guess it's still a "time-out" in the sense that he gets removed from the situation. FWIW, we never have the laptops on when DS is around. He sometimes opens the laptop himself and smashes the keys, but after a few times, he realized it's not that much fun and he moves on. He did manage to turn it on a few times, but again, since he can't get pass the Password screen to actually get into the programs, he loses interest pretty quickly.

pb_bride · March 2014

DS is 16m and we haven't started doing time-outs yet. Having said that, DS is pretty good (at least recently) with not doing things he's not supposed to.

Sometimes he'll get upset/frustrated with toys or books, and he'll start throwing them. When he does that, I tell him we don't do that and hold him while counting to 10. By the time we reach 10, his temper is gone and he'll go back to playing "nicely". If I simply ignore him or just tell him we don't throw things, (without the mini time-out), he will continue to throw.

skibunny59 · March 2014

We are having the same issues with DD who is turning 2 on Thursday when it comes to jumping on the couch. She knows she is not supposed to jump on the couch yet she still does it. I don't care about the furniture so much. I just don't want her to fall back and smack her head on the wooden coffee table. A friend's LO actually got a concussion doing this at their own house.

For you it's a simple solution. Put the laptop out of her reach. For me, I can't exactly remove the couch or coffee table.

Heyjordynhey · March 2014

meglette417 said:
Timeouts most certainly work for us we have been doing it since 12 months. Of course at that age he didn't really get it but he most certainly does now. If he is doing something now I tell him I count to 3 or TO and he either stops the behavior or picks up what I am asking. If you are consistent then it will work. If he knows he shouldn't be doing it then I think TO will work for you. You will have to stay there with him and I don't look at DS because he will try to make me laugh. Now he can also sit in TO by himself and stay there.

This worked for us too. Ds is only 15 months but we started time out at 12 months. If he does something he knows he's not susposed to do, like pull on the cords for the fish tank, & we say no and he still does it we redirect him 3 times and if he still does it he sits next to me on the couch or floor for about 1 min then tell him no we don't pull the cords on the fish tank and explain why. It normally works but he'll still go over there he just won't touch the cords for a few days then well start over again lol. But it can't hurt so why not!

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