Short Time Outs

The standard recommendation on time out duration is one minute per year of age, often capping out at 5min. In my experience (n=3, not independent) this is much longer than needed; I typically do about a minute regardless of age. The important thing is that the punishment is predictable and immediate, not that it's strong. We typically put kids in time out in three ways. The most common way is when we count to three but they still don't listen: Anna: Lily, get out of my room. Lily: You said Nora could be in here, so I can be too. Anna: Dad!! Me: If Anna says you need to get out of her room, you need to get out of her room. Lily: This isn't fair. Me: That's one. Lily [huffs] Me: That's two. Lily: [huffs] Me: That's three; time out. We don't usually get all the way to time out. Typically "that's one" would have been enough: it shows that we're moving from our normal mode of interaction to "actually this is just something you just have to do." Another way kids will go in time out is in…