to think that 'the naughty step' technique totally sucks?

[PipPipPip]

Making kids sit on a naughty step seems mean to me! Plus it also seems to reward the kid's bad behaviour with a whole load of attention.

Am I being unreasonable to think it just, basically, sucks?

"it's seems a but odd to say (for example) I don't want you to hit x in a stern voice. If you stop hitting x I will give you a treat"

I agree.
I use the carrot approach as rewarding good behaviour, as opposed to rewarding bad behaviour that is stopped.
That would reinforce the bad behaviour.
Bad behaviour gets stern voice, cross face, withdrawal of attention / toy whatever.
I cant be doing with wrestling child onto a step, but I would remove her from a situation if she was being OTT.

So thats time out then?
sorry i misunderstood, like i said I never did the naughty step either ut would remove dc from the room to think for a few minutes, never did any wrestling.

Exactly what you said, yourFanjoIsNotAHandbag

We do time out on the step (but call it time out rather than naughty step) or up in her room. She calms down and apologises. The threat of time out often stops her being naughty. She's a bit of a toddler terror but lovely at heart (of course!) and it's our job to teach her right from wrong and that actins have consequences. She's extremely verbal and has great comprehension but don't all toddlers get the red must of rage that stops then listening and being reasonable?! If she screams I just let her, then say something like "when you're ready to talk nicely, we'll..."

Am I being unreasonable to think there are other alternatives? Like, uh, being really nice to your kid and explaining things to them? And kind of just ignoring bad behaviour and lavishly praising good behaviour?

So when my toddler bit another child I should ignore it? Ha ha ha ha...

I'm not sure calling it the 'naughty' step helps. We call it the 'thinking' step. They sit there and get ignored for however many minutes they need, then we talk it through. DS1 (slightly older and wiser now) told me the other day he actually likes it. Kids don't enjoy feeling angry or stressed any more than we do and sometimes a bit of enforced separation and reflection can help them to calm down enough to engage with whatever it is needs addressing.