Counting Out Discipline

I've started putting Tyler in "time-out."

I never thought "time-out" would work on a young child. I earnestly believed Tyler would pay attention to me when I popped his hand and told him to stop playing with the trash can. When he laughed in my face, I was shocked. I tried popping his hand harder. It only upset him if he was very tired. Otherwise, he didn't pay me much attention.

But how do you get a 16-month-old child to sit still for a time-out?! Well, I started counting. The first day, I made him sit down and he cried while I held his hands and counted to 20. The second day, he just stared at me while I counted to 20. The third day, I didn't even have to hold his hands and he knew that he could get up when I said "twenty."

Last night, Brian and I decided that it is time to put a stop to the throwing of toys. The next time Tyler threw a toy over the gate at the fireplace, I said, "No, don't throw your toys." He immediately picked up another toy and walked to the gate. He threw it as I was saying, "No." So I made him sit down and I counted to 20. He picked up another toy and walked to the gate. I said, "No, don't throw" and took a step toward him. He walked off in the other direction as if he wouldn't even think of throwing a toy.

About 10 minutes later, he walked behind the sofa (where I couldn't see him) and threw a toy over the gate. As soon as I heard the toy hit the floor, I jumped up and said, "NO, don't throw your toys." He looked at me and promptly sat down, waiting for me to count to 20.

[For those of you that see this as a sign the method is not working, please know that I can now wear my glasses and Tyler doesn't even touch them. He pulled them off my face three times on Tuesday and we counted through a time-out each time. That was all it took. I call that success!]