If you have read or watched any parenting TV shows or books you will see all too often people advise the parents to take a time out for themselves if the situation is getting out of control. This makes perfect sense, a lot of the reason I dislike spanking as a consistent form of discipline is because I feel a lot of parents spank when angered and in turn are hitting their children harder than need be. I know when I was a kid I got whooped by the belt, a wooden mitten, my parents hand, whatever was closest and that is probably the norm for most of the people who are adults today.
I just can’t see myself being a huge spanking kind of Mom, I am more the time out type of mother, but on occasion I certainly do tap my sons bum. A tap on the bum is usually left for something serious or dangerous not for an every day form of discipline. My downfall to parenting is that when times get real stressful around the house I just want to yell. I don’t really ever have the urge to spank my children it’s the yelling when Mama needs a time out.
So lately I have been trying to take a breath and walk outside so that I am not yelling over something silly, my children don’t take well to raised voices because I am not a person to yell at my kids often enough. Yelling scares my oldest as she is the most sensitive and makes the boys want to go crazier. I found out raising your voice, especially when you are a laid back, easy going person like me, only makes your children frightened or act out all silly. My sons are famous for that, if Mama raises her voice to any level they literally laugh at me. I am just simply not a good yeller.
What happens when Mama tries to take a time out and the four year old follows her out the door?! Oh I love that, you think I am doing the right thing, getting some air to chill out and have a Mama time out but then AJ follows me out the door. I have to laugh and say “ummmm no buddy, Mama is trying to get a little breathing room, you need to go back in the house so I can chill out”. That rarely works, AJ is famous for being very, very defiant, probably why the kid is still using diapers, wish they made more Pampers Cruisers in Size 7 because he has outgrown those size 6 diapers, and pees through pull ups!
When all H-E- DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS breaks loose at your house, do you take a time out?
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I do take time outs, but probably not as much as I should. Sometimes the kids wind up pushing me to my breaking point and I give in to a little screaming and then realize – ok, I need to walk away right now.
And I do have a couple that follow me, so I know how you feel in that. We all screw up at times as moms and lose our cool, but I think if we realize it and then the same situation happens again, we can work on responding instead of reacting. And if we need to take a “time out”, locking ourselves in the bathroom for a minute and turning on the exhaust fan so we can’t hear the screaming – may just work. 🙂
DAWN
.-= Dawn (Painter Mommy)´s last blog ..This Tom Girl is Wearing EARRINGS! =-.
I’d love a mommy time out but I don’t ever take them. I really need to work on this because I’m absolutely no good to anyone when I’m overly stressed, aggravated, tired or PMS’ing 🙂
I’m with Crystal. I should take them more and have started noticing that I need them.