A crash course
A successful time-out session takes planning. You’ll have to think ahead about:
Let us explain.
The best location, by far, is one that’s safe and also really boring. No toys, no games, no fun stuff. Common places include the corner of a room, a chair placed away from the action, or a hallway. Work with the space you have, but the most important thing is that time-out should be where there are no fun things happening.
Whichever area you choose, make sure that you’ve removed things that can be thrown or easily broken. Also, ensure that the windows aren’t able to be slipped through.
Decide exactly how time-out works in your house.
Until they’ve calmed down and are quiet for around 2 minutes.
By being calm and quiet.
Any yelling, talking or other noise starts the 2-minute timeframe all over again.
Run through the time-out game plan with the entire family. Parenting is a team sport and this can actually be a playful exercise.
To start, make sure everyone knows the time-out location and rules. This is important. Choose one family member to play the misbehaving child and do a run through of time-out, so your child knows exactly what to expect the first time you use it.
Let children know which behaviors will lead to time-out, whether it’s aggression, breaking house rules or simply not doing as they’ve been told. Other siblings should be told not to interact with the child in time-out, as to not give them extra attention.
Just calmly tell the child they can return. We don’t want to teach children that misbehaving will lead to hugs.
Calmly say they can come out when they’re ready and leave them to it.
You’ll need to return the child to time-out, every time they leave. You might also need to add on additional time, perhaps 2 minutes again, until they fully complete it.