Timeout

Time outs have begun in the McKown household...and not for Mommy and Daddy. As our budding child begins to explore his environment, personality, people around him, etc...he is also seeing how far he can push his boundaries. And you know what, it makes sense. He hasn't had any boundaries and doesn't even know what they are so just like we taught him to eat, sleep, and walk, we'll teach him boundaries.

The last few weeks David and I have begun to hint around at beginning timeouts, our doctor advised us that this would be a good time to begin them as well. Matthew knows "no" and will respond well to that. However, there is one thing that he does not respond to with that and that's hitting.

He likes to play with your face and David and him have a game with pulling each other's noses. But when he hits he is intentional about letting you know "I don't like that" or "Quit that". Last night, he got two chances with me and the third time when he almost clawed out my eye with his hit to the face. I put him in timeout for the first time. We have a chair that is in our front room, where we don't spend alot of time during the day. I explained to him why he was going in time out and that he would be there for 1 minute.

When I went and got him out I explained again that he was in time out for hitting Mommy and that was not acceptable. Well, time out happened three times last night for hitting. Our doctor says it will take 20 times to start getting it to sink in.

Even though its not fun to discipline Matthew, I know its purposeful and will help him continue to gain the structure and self-control he needs in life.