Thanks to Celtic Lady for this in-depth review!
Please Explain “Time Out” to Me is a book to help parent’s deal with their child’s behavior. I am 65 and when I was a child, the term “time out” was not a thing. I got the belt whenever I did something wrong, and it seemed like it was an all the time thing. I did not behave badly as far as I remember, the parents just could not handle kids.
That said, when I had my four kids, I think that there was only one spanking in all the years that the kids were home. I always said that I did not want to repeat my parent’s mistakes. I wish that my parents would have had a book like this. But it was the 50’s and 60’s, time was different then.
Back to the book, I wish that I had had a book like this. My son was a handful and he was in time out a lot. I would put him in time out and try to explain his behavior so I guess I kind of used the techniques in the book to a certain degree. Didn’t always work, the time out that is as there were other circumstances which caused his bad behavior.
As I read the book, I kind of got the giggles, the boy who is the narrator has a sense of humor for sure as he tells the story of how he behaves. The reader learns all about him and his family and his interactions with his little brother Liam. He tells how he feels when he is being naughty and later in the book how he likes himself better when he is good.
The story is very readable, perfect for a bedtime story, I love the illustrations, very well done. In the back of the book is a guide to the parent for effective behavioral management for positive and negative punishment. I also like the part about the 5 essential steps to time out and how to implement it.
I really think that this book is a must for any parent, whether you have a child that has behavioral issues on a regular basis or a parent who has a child who only misbehaves once in a while. Oh yes, I also liked the idea of a frustration fixer box. It is a concept of putting a bunch of things in a box that will help the child through his behavior issue. It can be anything that will help the child and the child can even pick out what he wants to put in the box.
I highly recommend this book and give it 5 stars!