And although the boys' bedroom is baby-proofed, they've still managed to find ways to pull the curtains down or take pictures off the wall when they really want to. They'd just forget they were in trouble and play together. Plus, my boys share a bedroom, so there goes the whole idea that I could send both of them to their respective rooms to deal with a double-duty timeout. Although I have a baby monitor, it's upstairs in the master bedroom, so unless my husband is home and one of us goes upstairs until the timeout's over, there's no way to be sure that the child in timeout isn't hurt or getting into mischief. I'm torn on how I feel about sending kids to their room when they misbehave. I don't like when the kids try to parent each other (which happened), and they were giggling when they were supposed to be atoning, so it completely defeated the purpose. But when one twin was in timeout, the twin who wasn't liked to climb on the couch and either taunt the convicted or play hide and seek with an unable partner. ![]() Our timeout spot was a corner formed by two couches because it helped cut down on escapes from a chair or a child charging up the stairs toward freedom. And if I only had one 3 year old to discipline, perhaps it would've worked better, but the day we tried it resulted in total chaos. Other than that, this technique seemed pretty straight-forward. How It Went: OK, first thing's first: I flat-out refused to call this timeout spot the "Naughty Spot" because it just sounds like something out of a 50 Shades of Grey book. If the child attempts to leave you calmly place him back, and at the end of the timeout you remind the child why they were put in there in the first place and ask for a hug and a kiss. You chose a particular spot that a child must stay in when they misbehave, like a corner, step, or chair, and then the child must stay there for one minute for each year of his age (in my case, three minutes). What It Is: If you've ever seen the show Supernanny, then you're familiar with this social exclusion timeout technique. ![]() Here's what happened: Attempt #1: Traditional Timeout So this week I tried putting them in the corner for a set period of time, sending them to their room, putting myself in timeout, using a relaxation timer, and letting them take a few minutes without toys while keeping them in one place. I don't know what to do to get them to listen and understand, so I felt like a week of trying different strategies might get us on the right track or, at the very least, help us narrow down which tactics definitely don't work. I know that my twins are two different people with different personalities, and I do my best to cater to what each of them need, but frankly, I'm stumped. Since nothing seemed to be working on a consistent basis anyhow, I decided that for a full week I'd try a different timeout technique each day for my 3-year-old twins to see which ones (if any) were effective at improving their bad behavior. I'm sick of yelling at them, and threatening to take their teddy bears to the dumpster only makes them ask to go outside for a walk, so I decided to try some popular time-out techniques to see if any of them could help my kids see the error of their (still adorable, if not bratty) ways. My parenting style is pretty laid back, but when they do something potentially dangerous, like treat the couch as a trampoline or lay hands (or teeth) on one another, I feel the need to step in and let them know that what they're doing is not OK. I feel like I've tried every timeout technique on my twins on the face of the earth and I'm still not sure what will work for them on any given day. Our kids are great at testing boundaries, but putting them in traditional timeouts doesn't seem to be making much of a difference in terms of getting them to behave better. My partner and I know that we don't want to using spanking as a discipline method with our 3-year-old sons, but beyond that, we're absolutely lost.
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