Is it just me? I swear I am always finding myself nodding my head when I read Kriston's post. I completely agree with the purpose of timeout. We hardly ever use timeouts so when we do use it she sees it as punishment. I have to admit a few times it was to help calm her down but usually I can talk her down. When she does get a timeout it is more for when she completely disregarded rules and knows better. I can count how many times she has had a timeout. I have friends that live by supernanny and are always using the timeouts to the point that the child acts out even more than before the timeout starts. One friend's DD had a playdate with my DD and it was so over the top how many timeouts she gave her in that short time frame. More than my DD has ever gotten during her whole life! And it wasn't working, clearly.
But I fully believe timeouts have their place along as not over used and people know when the child no longer needs it and other methods should be considered. I see timeouts as the last result when other things are not working.
