Dealing With Time-Outs: Pros And Cons

If you are wondering what the pros and cons are with dealing with time-out maybe this will help you. Time out may work for some kids but others not so much. Some parents also are able to implement the time-out better than other parents. It can be a good tool though to use if done correctly.

Here are the pros to time-out:

When your child is having a tantrum or misbehaving in some way, it is good to remove the child from the situation. Doing this allows the child to try to calm down. It also gives the parent a chance to let the child know that his or her behavior is not acceptable.

To make sure that the time-out work well, it is good to talk to your child before things start going wrong. It is also important to use this technique for discipline sparingly. It is important to choose which battles you want to take head on.

The length of this type of discipline should be age appropriate. The time should also depend on the nature of the infraction. The time out should match to what the offense was.

When the time-out is finished, talk to the child about why he or she was placed in time-out. Keep it to the point. Also, let the child know that you still love him or her.

Here are the cons:

Children that are young, often don’t know why they are placed in time-out. They may repeat the same offense over and over again. Also, the time-out may be given inconsistently and that could cause it to becomes ineffective.

Another reason why this type of discipline may not be good is that the child resists greatly. The parent may have to keep checking on the child and may even fight him or her to get to the time-out spot. This can make everyone unhappy and angry.

The parent may also not apply this form of discipline and therefore the child may think that he or she can get away with most everything. Many parents threaten that they will discipline their child but don’t follow through.

So whether you think time-out is the way to go or not, it is best to consider if that type of discipline will work for you and your child.