Time-Out for your toddler

I've had some discussions with my sister earlier about disciplining our children. She use the time-out method on her son since he was about Irfan's age. I tried it on Irfan the other day when he suddenly flung this headphone on my back, because he wanted to listen to a song but it wasn't working. Yes, he will get physical at times so instead of spanking and thus setting a violence example for him, I wanted to try the time-out method.

So I put him in his room. He cried and then came out to the room I was in and so I grabbed him and put him back in the room, telling him to stay there until he stop crying. Tak tahu lah whether he understood my words or the action I took, but he stayed at that very same spot for almost a minute before he started crying out "Mama, mama, mama" in a very sad voice.

Ok, what do you think happened after that? Of course la hati ibu saya pun tersentuh and so I went to hug and told him not to repeat the same behaviour.

So after googling, this is what I found on babycenter about this method.

A time-out isn't a punishment. It's an opportunity for your child to learn how to cope with frustration and modify his behavior. While your child is in a time-out, he's on his own, so try to let him sit in solitude for a few moments.

Because toddlers find it hard to sit still, trying to make your little one stay in a certain place for a prescribed length of time may well disintegrate into a chase scene. Here's what happens: Your child runs away from his time-out spot. You catch him, then struggle to make him stay in one place. You threaten, he laughs, delighted with this new game — or cries, frustrated by the requirement. You grab, he bolts. Meanwhile, because he has a short attention span, your toddler forgets why you wanted him to sit still in the first place. Instead of helping your child regain his self-control, you find yourself in a power struggle.

For this reason, traditional time-outs won't really work until sometime between your toddler's second and third birthdays. Watch for signs that he understands what's acceptable and what's not. One clue is if he reminds you of the rules when you break them, too. For example, if he catches you doing something you normally wouldn't allow him to do — say, eating a snack on the sofa — he may say, "You're not supposed to do that, Mommy." Until your toddler shows this kind of appreciation of the need to follow rules, hold off on time-outs. Otherwise, he won't understand why he's being corrected, and you may get frustrated and abandon the strategy prematurely.

Full article here.

So, what do you think. Is 'time-out' a good method to teach your child discipline?