When she does something bad, we tell her two times not do it. The third time we say "Lilly, if you (bite/hit/throw things) again you will go in time out." For time out, we place her in the hallway and make her sit there for one minute. Once the minute is up, we go to her and sit down near her and make her walk over to us. We tell her why she got put in time out and we wipe her face off, make her say she is sorry and then we hug.
The Friday before Christmas Lilly spent a record five times in time out. The first two times on this particular day, I had to place her back in the hallway several times. She would wander out and find me and say "Hi mommy." Of course when you put her back in the hallway, she starts screaming and crying. On the third time out, Lilly got wise to the plan. She did not come looking for me, instead she sat/stood/lay in the hallway screaming, "mommy give me hug, mommy wipe tears away!"
When Joe got home that night he got to witness a time out. Lilly is screaming and I am in the kitchen laughing. The time out is really taking a toll on Joe and he wants to get her out before the minute. He asks me if the sight/noise of her doe snot make my heart break and I said no. This was the fifth time out of the day and it no longer made me sad to put her in it - she has to learn.
Fortunately we are down to a couple of time outs a week now. I have noticed that when it is time for the time out to be done and you ask her to come to you, she does so with a big grin on her face and tonight at dinner, she was asking to go into time out when she would attempt to throw her plate. She eventually did throw her plate onto floor and said "I go time out now," but I did not grant her request. I'm not sure that means she likes time out or she was using reverse psychology on me. I just went a poured a glass of wine and made her sit at the table until I was finished with my dinner. Does that mean I need a time out?
