[blparent] behavior problems with our 4 year old

[Jodie and Kahlan]

Time-outs are usually nothing more than an exercise in frustration for 
us, but there are times when it does work. it depends on how defiant 
she's feeling at the time. The last time she refused to do a time-out 
and kept fighting us, that was when we sent her to her room for an 
hour. Our logic was that she could either take the short time-out or 
spend a longer time in her room with nothing to do. She's cooperated 
with time-outs ever since that hour in her room, so maybe it worked.

We didn't have time-outs either; I just turned forty, so I remember the 
days of being stuck in a corner for a long time, or being made to sit 
totally still in school when I misbehaved until my hands and feet went 
to sleep. One timem at camp someone did something wrong and the 
counselors put us all in corners until the guilty person confessed. 
After what seemed like hours, the counselor let me out because she said 
she knew I didn't do it, which I didn't. The kid who did it finally 
confessed and the other kids were not too happy with her.