The duration of a typical work day for me includes issuing a least one time-out to one of several mischievous little ones at preschool. Every so often we get through a class without name-calling, budging, hair-pulling and selective hearing, but these little guys are curious and very young and sometimes need to just sit down, chill out, and think about their actions. We have a red chair against a wall of our classroom which is the “time-out chair”. Every one of them knows what the chair is for, and no one voluntarily sits in it, even thought it is more like a little couch and quite comfortable. To the repeat offenders, all we have to do is point to the red chair and they go sit down and wait quietly for us to come and have a chat with them about why they had to sit there.
Every so often, though, we run into problems with kids we never expected to. They don’t sit in the red chair peacefully; it is as if the world will end if we make them sit down in it. They cry and plead and beg and apologize. The angry ones make me laugh (um, but not to their faces, of course!) because they almost always say, “YOU go have a time-out!”.
Oh, the irony.
“YES, PLEASE!” I want to reply.
There is truth behind those angry little remarks from stubborn 3 year olds. Sometimes I SHOULD go have a time-out. We should all go have time-outs.
Count to 10. Breathe in and out. Think about what I did wrong and think about what I am going to do to fix it. Come to terms with my bad decisions and get over it.
Don’t you love how when you were little and really ticked off your parents, they got all up in your face and yelled at you to go to your room? I love how that was a punishment. Gone are the days when I would cry and pout and be angry about having to hang out in my room and be quiet.
Now I welcome those moments.
I am going to start being intentional about time-outs. I am going to issue them to myself on a regular basis. I am going to enjoy them and even learn to love them. And around 10pm each night, I will look at my reflection in the mirror and say, “Go to your room, young lady!”. Not at 12am, 1am, or 2am. I will go to bed at a decent hour and maybe not be so grumpy and maybe not race the clock in the mornings.
Go have a time-out, and especially enjoy your weekend, folks. You deserve it.
~C~
