Thank you, sir! May I have another?
Poor Isaac. He hears "no" a lot. There are the million little "Didn't I just tell you not to do that"s that are liberally sprinkled throughout our days. And there are a few things that he does too often and earn him repeated time-outs. He likes to send his arm through the air to accompany "Stop it!" and it frequently lands on me or baby brother. He likes to kick and flail when I'm changing his diaper. Several times, when little Ella has bashfully tried to take a toy from him, he has body-checked her. All these are quite unacceptable, and he gets a time-out for them.
Our time-outs go like this: upon his committing the unacceptable offense, I say, "Isaac, you're getting a time-out," and either scoop him or ask him to climb into the time-out chair. "One minute," I say, and look at my watch to suggest he must sit still in the chair for one full minute. "Minute's up," I say when I decide he can be done sitting, "let's talk." I remind him why he got his time-out, and tell him why the offensive behavior is so bad. Then I ask him to give me a hug and he is relieved of his time-out chair. I read this whole procedure in a book somewhere, and it seems to work pretty well for us. At the very least, it accomplishes what I think is the most important part for toddler behavior control -- it removes him from the situation that caused the problem in the first place.
We hung out at Ella's house Monday morning, and he got a time-out for body-checking her. A little later, he told her to "STOP IT THAT'S MINE" and reached out in his annoying swatting motion. Without taking a breath this time, HE said "Time-out. One minute!" and looked at me like I was supposed to be doing something. I gave him his requested time-out, trying to keep my laughs under wraps. But Isaac, to this I ask you, my dearest angel: if you know you're doing something wrong, why do it in the first place?
Then today I am changing his diaper and have to remind him for the bazillionth time that I don't want him to kick around because he could hurt me. "I told you" he started, echoing my special tone that starts the ubiquitous "I told you not to do that" phrase. So....then....DON'T DO IT, ya stinker.
Our time-outs go like this: upon his committing the unacceptable offense, I say, "Isaac, you're getting a time-out," and either scoop him or ask him to climb into the time-out chair. "One minute," I say, and look at my watch to suggest he must sit still in the chair for one full minute. "Minute's up," I say when I decide he can be done sitting, "let's talk." I remind him why he got his time-out, and tell him why the offensive behavior is so bad. Then I ask him to give me a hug and he is relieved of his time-out chair. I read this whole procedure in a book somewhere, and it seems to work pretty well for us. At the very least, it accomplishes what I think is the most important part for toddler behavior control -- it removes him from the situation that caused the problem in the first place.
We hung out at Ella's house Monday morning, and he got a time-out for body-checking her. A little later, he told her to "STOP IT THAT'S MINE" and reached out in his annoying swatting motion. Without taking a breath this time, HE said "Time-out. One minute!" and looked at me like I was supposed to be doing something. I gave him his requested time-out, trying to keep my laughs under wraps. But Isaac, to this I ask you, my dearest angel: if you know you're doing something wrong, why do it in the first place?
Then today I am changing his diaper and have to remind him for the bazillionth time that I don't want him to kick around because he could hurt me. "I told you" he started, echoing my special tone that starts the ubiquitous "I told you not to do that" phrase. So....then....DON'T DO IT, ya stinker.
posted by Claire at 1:40 PM
1 Comments:
I can see we are getting closer to time outs over here. And Liam has taken to approaching a situation he has already been warned about chanting "No no no." Therefore giving himself away. Though I have a feeling the sly tactics will come in time.
Post a Comment
<< Home