Time-out

We have never really tried to use time-out as a punishment for Jonathan. We both have felt that he wouldn't really understand it, yet. But now that JR is 2, I think he can understand it, so I decided to try it. This is how the my first attempt went at time-out.

Jonathan, like most toddlers, throws fits sometimes. When he doesn't want to do something he will do something that he knows he is not supposed to do. We have refrigerator magnets on the fridge that he can play with. They are letters, and we have told him a number of times they belong on the fridge, and he keeps them there, and to not put them on the floor. And most the time he is really good about playing with them on the fridge. So today, JR started throwing a fit and he decided to go over to the fridge and start throwing the magnets on the floor of the kitchen. I decided this would be a good opportunity to try time-out, so I did. JR sat in the chair for 2 minutes with no complaints. Then when his time-out was over, I explained to him why I put him in time-out, and asked him if he would clean up the magnets he threw on the floor. He obediently got off the chair and cleaned up his magnets. I thought to myself, well the time-out seems to have worked, right? Well what did Jonathan want to do right after he had cleaned up all his magnets. Go back and sit in the chair. He thought it was fun. So not sure that it worked as a punishment, but at least it calmed him down enough to do what I asked, hehe.