There are many reasons time-outs don’t work for the long haul. Why Are Time-Outs An Ineffective Long-Term Solution? But, as I found the tool to be increasingly ineffective in my home, I knew I needed other tactics. I, too, was once a time-out queen myself. If you are a proponent of time-out, this is not a finger-waving post of judgment, I promise.

Sure, a time-out might curb behavior in the moment, but it doesn’t promote our long-term goal of raising emotionally stable, resilient, and empathetic children. When we take a short-sighted approach to discipline, we leave the door open for long-term problems. After all, we are running a marathon, aren’t we? While well-meaning parents have used time-out as an alternative to more punitive methods like spanking, it doesn’t seem to reap the long-term benefits we hope for. Or, in other cases, getting the child to go to time-out isn’t necessarily a battle, but the child continues to misbehave once their time in the corner is finished. But, every time YOU try to send your child to time-out, the 5-minute time-out turns into a 30-minute throwdown of epic proportions.įor most parents, using time-out to “teach kids a lesson” often increases the power struggle and ends in frustration, anger, and fails to achieve the desired outcome. Your pediatrician recommended it, your friends swear by it, and your child’s preschool uses it incessantly. Time-Out: Do Time-Outs Really Work? Problems with Time-Out (And What to do Instead)

Time out chair