Time Out Pad: The Timer Is In Charge Here!

My 4-year-old son is a lovely child who melts my heart, but I admit he spends a fair amount of time in time out. Now, before I lived with a small boy I’d have said an electronic Time Out Pad ($35) is overkill. Now I know that this child would do the laundry and change the oil in the car if he was being timed. Whenever we need him to do anything we just set the kitchen timer and that “BEEP” is more powerful than the voice of God Himself. Using a coin, parents set the dial to for the proper time. The enclosed parenting guide suggests one minute per year of age. When the need arises, sit that sassy little character on the pad and push the button. The lights work like a traffic signal and change from red to yellow to green when the time is up. When the offender has served his time, a happy little melody plays and we wrap it up with an apology and hugs and kisses.

If he should defy the all-knowing-all-telling Time Out Pad and try to make a run for the prison gates, a loud alarm sounds. My one complaint is that the pad is a bit too sensitive and can sound the alarm if he’s sitting a little bit off center. He now knows just to scooch over a bit and it’ll stop going off.

My husband is such a huge fan of the Time Out Pad that he asked me to bring it on vacation with us. I declined because one more piece of gear was going to require us to rent a burro in the airport, but seriously considered toting it along!

The bottom line is that our son wiggled and screamed and tried to escape from time out before we had the gadget. Now he sits still and quiet because he doesn’t want to risk offending the all-powerful Time Out Pad. Whatever works!

– Kristen

Comments

we use a kitchen timer (or sometimes the timer on the microwave), works just as well and doesn’t cost $35
And it’s portable too.

- edel on August 18th, 2009

Seriously edel. What are people doing that they need an electronic pad to do the time-out work for them? It’s not that hard to show the kid you mean business if they are in time-out. What’s wrong with a kitchen timer like edel uses?

- J on August 18th, 2009

My parents didn’t even use a timer. Just sit on the stairs and think about what you’ve done. After a few minutes (that seemed like eternity) they checked on us if we were sorry.

Nowadays everyone is acting like time out is a new discovery in parenting and needs gadgets…

- Anna on August 18th, 2009

We have this for my oldest son and we love it. He is the type to push boundaries and putting him on the stairs or in the corner doesn’t work because he spends his time trying to slide out of the spot we put him in. With this I instantly know if he’s moved and he knows to keep his butt on it or the time out pad will tell on him! It works for us when other things didn’t. I got mine on sale at Toys R Us, I think it was around $18. Totally worth it for me

- Brandi on August 18th, 2009

Put the kid on the spot/chair/whatever and keep watch. No need to pay for anything.

- Moore on August 18th, 2009

Riduculous…
In my opinion Time-outs don’t even work. Do you really think your child is “thinking about what they did wrong?” NO! They are thinking about how to not get caught next time and/or how they will “get back at you.” Time-outs are just as ineffective as spanking. Try reading Positive Discipline….Most of the time “mis-behavior” is a result of the child not being to express what they are feeling so they act out….target the REASON behind the “mis-behavior” and everyone will feel and act better.

- Suzanne on August 18th, 2009

Suzanne,
While I do believe that some misbehavior is due to kids “acting out”…I believe kids misbehave because they are curious and impulsive, and it’s simply in us to push boundaries. When my son got a hold of a knife and cut holes into the milk carton, it was not because he had “issues” that he was unable to express. He was trying to get the straw out that he had dropped in the jug. When he darted out into a parking lot, it was because he was full of energy and wanted to run and wasn’t thinking about the danger, not because he was mad at me because I didn’t pay enough attention to him that morning. That being said, I think this time out pad would have worked great for him…of course now at the age of 12, he’s a little to old for it, lol.

- CTBmom on August 18th, 2009

It made me sad to read about this product…

Some other things to think about:

The Case Against Time Outs
http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/peter_haiman.html

22 Alternatives to Punishment
http://www.naturalchild.org/jan_hunt/22_alternatives.html

- practicing nvc on August 18th, 2009

Suzanne, time out and positive re-enforcement are not mutually exclusive. we use both. postitive reenforcement is great and we use it a lot, but ANY child is going to act out sometimes and time out DOES work. it has been proven to work. even when it’s not about the sitting and thinking about what they did. it’s about them calming down, the situation not escalating and resolving the issue as quickly as possible. if you explain to your child why you put them in time out, before and after, then they won’t need to work it out for themselves and they will calm down and apologise.
it may not work for you but it works on all five of our kids, all of whom have different temperaments.

and positive reenforcement is a wonderful thing. never stop using it. it is more preventative than punitive and is wonderful.

- JM on August 18th, 2009

OMG, my 4 year old would LOVE this he would think it was a great game! he would probably love setting of the alarm just to hear the noise, flashing lights and a buzzer? to him this would be a game, I could just see him asking if he could sit on lol!

- Melanie on August 19th, 2009

Actually, with all the problems we have with time outs at my house, the pad looks like something that just may work!

- nanjhnyc on August 19th, 2009

Thank you practicing NVC…your links and the articles are EXACTLY what I was trying to say!
Has anyone thought that maybe timeouts aren’t working at your house because timeouts DON’T WORK????

- zanna on August 19th, 2009

There is a right and wrong way to do a time out period. When a child is in time out, they are not there to “think about what they did”. In fact, those words should not be used. A time out should be a time for a child to be separated from the group or objects at which he is showing negative emotions/behavior. The child should be sent to time out for a period of minutes, not communicated with for those few minutes, and then simply reintroduced to the group without much fanfare. The child will be missing out on fun, etc and will not repeat the behaviors if done consistently over a period of time. Most parents do time outs the wrong way and thus they are ineffective.

- Colleen on August 20th, 2009

Parents who use time-out as a punishment do not understand child development or brain development. They do not now how important it is to understand the children are always making decisions about themselves (and I good or bad, capable or not capable, etc.), decisions about others, (are they supportive, friendly, etc. or not), and then decisions about what they will do in the future. These decisions are not made at a conscious level, but they are what helps create a child’s personality (even though these decisions are made at a subconscious level). Try imagining what your child is feeling, thinking, and deciding while it time-out. “I won’t get caught next time.” “I’ll get even.” Or, worst of all, “I’m bad.” This is why the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) is very much against time-out. There are many other methods, including positive-time-out where the child designs a “cool off spot” filled with pleasant things to help him calm down until he can access his rational brain and “do better.” After he has designed his “positive time-out area.” he gives it another name such as “my space,” of my “my cool off spot.” and the “chooses” to go there instead of being sent. If a child isn’t old enough to design his own positive-time-out area, he is not old enough to understand any kind of time out. Most important to remember, is that even positive-time-out is not always the most effecting parenting tool to help children learn self-discipline, responsibility, problem-solving skills, and other valuable social and life skills.

- Jane Nelsen on August 21st, 2009

Each child is different and different methods of discipline work for different children. I think it is very close minded to say that time out flat out does not work and this method or that method does. It’s up to each parent to find out what works best for their children. I don’t think this pad would work for us. We are just fine with our current time outs.

- Gigi on August 22nd, 2009

JM hit the nail on the head. Zanna, so why exactly do you feel it doesn’t work? You didn’t really back it up with explanations to show what you mean, you just proclaimed it doesn’t work.

I got a kick out of tip 19 in the second link NVC posted. Basically it’s stating that you give the child all the time they need to do what you want them to do and let them tell YOU when they are ready to do things like put a jacket on, clean up, share a toy, etc. Wow… Quite a few of those tips are what a decent time out is anyway so it makes me wonder if the people who poopoo timeouts and act like it is a form of torture just have no patience for a small time out themselves.

- J on September 1st, 2009

Practicing NVC, I choked on my cereal reading that article. The fact that they consider revoking privileges as “unfair” & “trying to cause pain” is hilarious.

- megan on September 1st, 2009

if you don’t like it or don’t want to use it, don’t buy it!!
I think it’s a great concept for the more difficult strong headed children like my middle son.
i wish they had this 5 years ago, i would of bought it. its just like a time stool but better,imo.

so there, don’t like it don’t use it.
time outs don’t harm children…it teaches them boundaries and rules.
to each their own.

- Misti on September 4th, 2009

This looks like a nice tool that may work for some kids, all kids are different. I have 4 boys & must deal with each on a differnt level in a different way.
To all of the people who are trying to say that timeouts dont work & are cruel,blah blah blah. any form of “Reinforcement” is to show children what the boundaries are & to let them know when something is unacceptable or yes “BAD”, unfortunately sometimes they do have BAD behavior, if You as a “Parent” does not show them boundaries & let them “Cool off” on their own when they feel like it, you are sending your kids in the world a a Grave disadvantage of reality! When they are older & decide to throw a tantrum, adult or teenage style someone else may decide to end their fit before they feel its time to cool off.
Your job is to make sure that You Love them but You do not Love or care about the Bad or Negative behavior, & to be a successful & self serving Adult they must know what is Bad Negative Unacceptable or Totally Ridiculous.
It is not your job to be your Childs Friend it is your Job to be Their Parent & Guide them to the Right Good Acceptable ways of life

- Jalane on September 9th, 2011