Voluntary Timeouts

Dear Connor,

It's a simple concept: When you do something bad, you get a timeout. Daddy or I make you stand up and face this blank section of our dining room wall with your arms up against the wall (yes, as if you're under arrest and we're going to frisk you for weapons).

The point is to punish you and make you think about what you've done. The problem is that I don't think you understand this. Sometimes, you give yourself a timeout when you haven't even done anything wrong by voluntarily going over to that section of the wall, putting your arms up and saying, "Connor timeout" when we haven't even told you to. Um yeah, if you're giving yourself timeouts, I don't think they're working . . .

Love,
Mom