Time-out

We've started implementing time-outs with Addy when she does something wrong.  Here's how it is supposed to work:

-Addy does something she is not supposed to do.  She gets a warning and she'll go into time-out if she does it again.

-Addy does it again.  We set out her little time-out mat and set her down in it.

-Addy sits there for one minute per year she has been alive (I'm kinda dreading her 2nd birthday...).  If she leaves her spot, we reset the minute.

-When it's over, we tell her why she was in time-out again, tell her not to do it, say we love her, and give her a hug and a kiss.

Now it usually works where she's testing us... seeing how far off the mat she can get before we reset, or running back to the mat when she sees she's gone too far.  She laughs - it's a game.  At least, until about the 15th time we've had to start over... then she's crying.  Eventually she sits there the full minute and more often than not she doesn't do the incorrect behavior again. At least, not for a few hours.

We're still working on some behaviors, like pulling the DVDs, Blue-Rays, and CDs out or standing on her table.  To be honest, I'm not sure how to make her understand that these are unacceptable behaviors so she won't do them again.  That got me thinking.

When I was a kid, I was spanked a few times, but it was usually the THREAT of being spanked that stopped me from doing something.  It's the same with Addy.  We tell her that if she does it again, she'll go into time-out, and usually she stops.  Just a minute ago, she was sitting next to me, watching me write this, with her hand raised in the air.  She was prepared to hit the computer - one of her favorite pastimes.  I told her if she did she'd go into time-out and she dropped her hand, did a little disappointed pouty face, and wandered off.

I'm not sure how long our society has favored things like time-out over other punishments, or if it's always been there.  It seems to me that we always have these punishments, even as adults.

If I broke the rules (say, robbed a bank), I'd go away to "time-out" (prison) for a while (a long while).  And I'm sure that the threat of going to jail prevents a lot of crimes.  Just a thought.