SuperNanny Style Time Outs!

Yesterday I came to a startling realization. OK, maybe it was startling because it was something that had been nagging the back of my mind for months now, but it was a realization nonetheless.

I have done my poor little Kaitlyn a serious disservice by not disciplining her as stringently as I disciplined Mack at the same age. Mackenzie has gone through fazes of being in time-out multiple times a day in an attempt for her to learn the rules and understand how we expect her to behave not only in our home, but also in other places. With Kaitlyn though, I seem to have somehow messed that up for her and in being more lax with time-outs, have created a child who DOES NOT know how we expect her to behave and therefore is a little terror most of the time.

And not that she isn't a sweet girl, but she also has a little mischievous streak that comes out and often takes awhile to go away again. For example when she hits Mack or doesn't listen to me, I usually just correct her, tell her to apologize and then move on. With Mack in the same situation, she would have been sent to a time-out, and been expected to sit there (without getting up) for 2 minutes (or however old she is) and then would need to apologize for whatever behavior had gotten her sent there in the first place.

So in realizing all this, I have made a decision. Kaitlyn is about to start getting some tough love when it comes to discipline. I began last night with a true SuperNanny style time-out. Basically it took about 20 minutes before the kid actually sat in time-out for her whole 2 minutes without getting up. But you know what? It has ALREADY made a difference. The threat of a time out today was enough for her to correct her own behavior and follow my directions. We are about to have THREE children all under the age of 4 and if I can't get Kaitlyn to behave the way I need her to we are going to have some serious problems. I hope that I can stick to my plan, not get so upset about her not following the rules that it interferes with the plan, and get Brian on board! Wish me luck!