Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Time out


Some of those parenting books suggest a time out be given to help correct poor behavior or calm a crazed child.  Typically, I have found, the suggested allotment of time is one minute per year old.

Yesterday morning, after a mind-blowing hour and 45 minutes of pure chaos, meltdowns, items thrown and my hand slammed shut in the dishwasher door, I put myself in a time out.  Mind you, he'd only been awake for about one hour and 46 minutes.  And no, I didn't commit any of the aforementioned actions.

I should  have been allotted about 27 minutes and 59 seconds.  Perhaps I got gipped.  However, the five or so minutes I shut myself in my bedroom (and listened to the little devil whom I love have at it) were just the thing I needed to correct my behavior -- I cried it out -- and calm my crazed nerves.  Poor parenting?  Well, perhaps that isn't what the parenting authors had in mind.  

Regardless, the timing couldn't be more perfect.  As of today, I get 28 minutes next time.

courtesy:  Time Out, 2005 (book cover photograph) copyright of Julie Blackmon, courtesy Radius Books 

3 comments:

Libby said...

Happy Birthday to you!! I wish that you will have a great day and possibly a full, solo 28 minute time-out at a place of your choosing sans crying.

(P.S. I think the mommy time-out is always more effective than the toddler time-out!)

melissa said...

oh katie...well said, friend. i really hope it's the teething thing we talked about. gotta love a good meltdown - even when it's on our end rather than the 2 year old's. xo
hope your bday was fun! you deserve it.

Kirsten said...

oh man.... not looking forward to that stage. Good job with the time out though. you are beautiful.