Many parents use time outs as a tool to discipline their kids. When a child did something wrong or something they weren’t supposed to parents would send their child to a corner to sit in silence. For me this was the worst punishment my parents could give me. I was always a hyper child my mind constantly raced. Sitting in silence with nothing to do felt almost torturous when all I wanted to do was run and play.
When I was five I thought it was a great idea to draw on the wall. I wanted to draw flowers to decorate our house to make it in my mind “pretty”. My dad saw this act and was immediately irritated. He sent me to time out for five minutes in the corner by the staircase. This punishment made me feel horrible. The first few seconds made me feel antsy and stuck. I hated being in the same spot for long. After about five seconds my mind told me to just walk away and I did. I left and when my dad went to check on me, I heard his surprise from the other room. He came and grabbed me and put me back in the corner and told me to stay another five minutes.

I stood there for maybe five more seconds and left again. While I understood my dad wanted me there to punish me for drawing on the wall, i couldn’t just stand there. I needed to be entertained by something, I needed to be doing something. Once my dad realized I left again he went and got me and asked why I couldn’t stay still. I explained that i needed to be doing something the best way a five year old could. To my surprise he understood and decided that the next time i misbehaved the punishment would be different.

After this act of drawing on the wall I misbehaved by riding my bike where I wasn’t supposed to. Instead of putting me in time out he decided to take away my bike for the week and told me to do something else. While I missed my bike and learned my lesson I was able to still do other activities where I wasn’t misbehaving. For me taking the thing that I misbehaved with was a much more effective punishment.

Many kids respond differently to different forms of punishment. For me taking things away was more effective then a time out. However, other kids could respond better to time outs, forced exercise, do extra chores. There are a lot of different ways to punish kids for misbehaving. Finding the right policies in your household could be a great way to push for good behavior in your children. The right policy could make all the difference in paenting.