It’s common among parents to use time-outs whenever their child behaves badly. As far as they’re concerned, it’s certainly better than a spanking or a tongue-lashing, and I completely agree with them.
However, it may not be the best path to take when disciplining your child, according to an article written by child expert Dr. Laura Markham in her Aha! Parenting blog. Instead of a time-out, she says, parents should use “time-in” instead, as it’s a more effective and positive tool for disciplining children.
Time-outs complicate things
According to Dr. Markham, time-outs don’t help much in making kids want to cooperate or calm down after a particularly bad episode. Instead, time-outs can make things more complicated as they, says Dr. Markham in her article, don’t teach kids to regulate their emotions, put them on the defensive and shame kids and make them feel like they’re bad people who need to be punished, among other things.
Connecting with your child with time-ins
Time-ins, on the other hand, are more like making a certain connection with children than a form of punishment. Dr. Markham explains a time-in helps you meet your child’s needs so that he/she can regulate himself/herself and stop from acting out. With a time-in, a parent can help a child process emotions, which makes him/her ready to solve and fix any issues he/she is facing.
To read the article in full, click here.
