Time Out

Effective?  You decide.

Lately, Aria has been hitting when frustrated.  Thankfully, she has only hit Mommy and Daddy (and not any other children) and it has been incidents when we tell her 'no' for something she wants to have or do.  Generally, the behavior happens more often when she is hungry or tired.  When she hits she must have a time out.  Justin and I do not plan to spank Aria.  I just can't get past hitting her to teach her not to hit.  I know that spanking works for other families, but I don't believe it is for us.  I certainly will not judge how others choose to discipline.  Every family and child is different and has different needs.  Our discipline choice is a two minute time out.  I read somewhere that the time out should be the minutes of the child's age.  It seems to be appropriate at this stage.  Aria has to sit in a corner, keep her hands to herself and be quiet.  When the time out timer goes off, I talk with her about her disobedience and we say a prayer to ask Jesus to help us learn from it.  With hitting, it is an easy explanation for me.  Jesus wants us to love others and hitting is not a way we show love to others.  Sometimes the explanations aren't that easy. 

Today we had a hitting incident and Aria had a time out.  After the time out, Aria went and got a stuffed animal and a little doll chair.  'Skip,' the stuffed animal, had to have a time out because he hit she told me.  She also told me Jesus loves others.  I think she understood the lesson of the day.  The key is, will she remember it and refrain from hitting next time?  Possibly.  There have been times I've seen her get frustrated and then say, "no hitting."  But other times she lashes out before thinking.  As I just typed the last sentence, I thought, "isn't that what we do as adults?"  Sometimes we lash out before thinking, too.  I guess lessons for toddlers are lessons for life.