Actually, it would be a good discipline for most of us to use. It would be wonderful if he did, I know it works.

I wonder if he still employs this practice as an adult. While it did not prevent him from losing his temper, it was always an effective tool for managing his anxiety, anger, and frustrations. Then he would excuse himself and find a place to think. Instead, he would let us know he didn’t want to talk and needed some alone time. When he got older, it was no longer necessary to find a chair. It was funny watching him grow up into this time-out chair process. As a parent, I was amazed he was able to realize this about himself. Then he would find a chair, sit down, and think through his problem.įive minutes later, he would come back a new person ready to tackle any issue. When he was five years old, he would tell us that he was having trouble and needed to sit down for a minute. However, he didn’t necessarily do it when he was in trouble, but when he was frustrated. The time-out chair became so useful, my son started putting himself in it when upset. But, it was amazingly effective in calming our children down. When Peggy first started implementing the time-out chair approach, I thought it weak. Most parents have some form of punishment where a child spends time alone to cool off. This approach is nothing unique to our family. When our children were little, we used to put them in a time-out chair when they were misbehaving.

Time out chair