Time Out!

I knew that given James' age and his proclivity to hit people (namely, ME!) that we would be starting to give timeouts soon.  And that time has come.  I've watched way too much Supernanny in my time to not give timeouts and I know that is the behavioral modification technique used at daycare as well.  And with that, we are diving head first into giving timeouts.  Right now we only give timeouts for throwing toys at someone (again, usually me) and for hitting.  James doesn't do much else that is worth of a time out and we don't want to make too many rules that could confuse him at this point.  If James hits or throws a toy at one of us, he's given a warning and, if he continues the behavior, we tell him what he's done and that he's getting a timeout.  Then he goes into his high chair for about a minute.  When we get him out of the high chair (where he's been sitting alone, not with us, like at dinner time) we tell him again why he got the timeout and ask him to say sorry.  He says sorry in the cutest little voice and then we get a hug and continue on our merry way.  He got 3 time outs on Saturday and 1 on Sunday, so its not like he's spending his day in there, but it usually gets the point across and he stops, at least for awhile.  He is still a little guy with a very short attention span, but we're getting the idea in his head early on.  I'm sure that over time we will give time outs for other reasons, not listening to mom and dad or maybe being mean to the dog.  For the most part we are very lucky that James is very well behaved and laid back in general.
The really funny part of this is that James has received a total of ONE timeout for hitting at daycare.  Rhonda gave him one timeout and he has stopped hitting there all together.  I'm glad that he at least knows that he has to behave there, even if it takes more work at home.  We're perfectly willing to put the work in and James is obviously worth it!