S.R.
My twins were two when I read something that changed my life. I explained to them as best I could that if they were doing something they shouldn't that I was going to count 1, 2, 3, and if I got to three, they were going to time out. It took about 4 trys when it finally sunk in to them and it was fantastic. They are 13 now and it still works. When I first heard about it, I thought, no way, this won't work, but I was ready to try anything and it worked. Time out was not a chair or a certain place, but a situation. We could be in the car driving and if they were in time out, that meant complete quiet, no talking and sitting still. If we were in the grocery store and they had to go to time out, it was in the aisle of the store. I simply explained to the looks that I received, that they were in time out. Example: If I said, Child's name, let's go and they were not ready, I would say, I'm starting to count, and I would could slowly, "I am on ONE, wait a second, Ok, I am on TWO, (usually they came running at this), if I got to three then very calmly and firmly I would point to a chair, the floor or something and say "You are in time out, 2 minutes". I only had to use the timeout about 4 or 5 time, and then hardly ever again. Good luck. Just FYI, we also had a rule, that I repeated before going into any store. I would tell the girls, " We are going into (store name) now, What is the rule?? They would say"Don't touch ANYTHING", then I would say, what happens if you do, they would say, go home IMMEDIATELY. It was an inconvience, but I only walked out of a store one time and they knew I meant business. Good Luck, SR