Imagine a “Time Out” where everybody wins.<\/p>\n
“Time Out” doesn\u2019t have to punish everybody. Your kid is a brat and they keep yelling stupid stuff and acting out. No, I don\u2019t personally know your kid, it\u2019s every kid at some point or another. You want to yank your hair out and burn all their toys, flush their cell phone down the toilet, and lock them in a room with only a doggy door through which you feed them carrots and sandwiches. Of course you can\u2019t do that \u2013 it would be socially unacceptable. But you probably know the feeling.<\/p>\n
Parents often get overwhelmed with the responsibilities of raising kids. You want to do right by your kids. You want them to have nice things, and you want them to grow up in an environment that is clean, loving and supportive so they will grow up to be good citizens.\u00a0 You want your kids to be smart, and make wise choices \u2013 and they learn these behaviors from you. That even goes for how you punish your kid.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not a parenting expert, I\u2019m a house cleaning expert, (but I was raised in a home with 18 siblings) so I do know a thing or two about \u201cTime Out\u201d and here is what I know to be true:<\/p>\n
This is an opportunity to teach your children values that matter. “Time Out”\u00a0is a heightened emotional time where you can teach your kids about honesty, truth and consequences, about cleanliness and a work ethic. Rather than making them sit in a corner sending you hateful vibes \u2013 put them to work. Have them do some of the things you don\u2019t have time for such as organizing all the books on the bookshelf. Tossing out all the magazines with last year\u2019s date. Give them a magic eraser and make their “Time Out” last until every smudge on every door and doorway in your house has been scrubbed.<\/p>\n My Dad used this technique on us with amazing effectiveness. He had 5 household chores that nobody wanted to do, and didn\u2019t fall under the category of “daily cleaning\u201d. Each chore was numbered one through five. His list kept changing depending on what chores needed to be done but the list was posted daily on a chalkboard.<\/p>\n And when it was time for somebody to be punished he would call everybody together (for accountability purposes) and the person being punished would roll a dice. There are six numbers on a dice so if you rolled a lucky six \u2013 yay for you, no punishment today. But if you landed on any other number, you had to do the chore assigned to that number as your punishment.<\/p>\n It was a really fun punishment game and everybody played…and the chores that cause parents stress, that fall through the cracks, were eliminated one by one as we kids were punished. We learned which behaviors triggered a roll of the dice and kids are smart \u2013 they will one up you on your game. We avoided those behaviors so we didn\u2019t have to roll the dice at all.<\/p>\n We learned that if we kept the chores current, there was minimal effort in completing a punishment. Ha! Take that Dad! It\u2019s already clean \u2013 only took me five minutes.<\/p>\n We learned that it is difficult to do everything by yourself \u2013 lots of hands make light work. Take advantage of “Time Out” everybody wins and it\u2019s a good idea.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download a free list of “Time Out” activities.<\/p>\n You\u2019re Welcome!<\/p>\n Resources:<\/p>\n Ask a Question<\/a><\/p>\n More articles like this<\/a><\/p>\n Magic Eraser<\/a><\/p>\n Legos<\/a><\/p>\n Photo creations:<\/p>\n![\"AskaHouseCleaner.com_Crying](\"https:\/\/askahousecleaner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/AskaHouseCleaner.com_Crying-Kid-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTake advantage of “Time Out”<\/h2>\n