Time out: what age?

[Memoo]

Struggling with this one a little.

Dd2 is 23 months and has just started to have huge tantrums. She throws herself on the floor and screams and kicks, she sounds like she is being murdered or something! I tend to just completely ignore her tantrums and stay calm.

However my Mother, who has been coming round to criticise help, is adement I should be telling dd to stop screaming and put her in time out until she stops. Tbh I think this is a rediculous idea as dd is too young to understand and would just keep running back to me.

I usually feel quite sure of what I am doing but my mother has got me really questioning myself to the point where I feel quite lost.

Would really appreciate any advice.

If ds who is 21 months is having a tantrum he gets ignored and left until it's done.

If he does something he shouldn't he gets told to stop then moved, if he goes back I do the same and the 3rd time we do our version of timeout - sit on a chair with me sat in front. When we have finished I then immediately take him to a toy and play with him with it!

Touch wood that works well for us!

we ignored tantrums at that age too and didnt use 'sitting on the step' (bottom step of the stairs) until the kids were closer to 3 and could understand what it was all about.

for us time out made it worse.

If child is tantrumming they are trying to tell you that they are having a problem, they only have their behaviour to explain. So maybe try to work out the cause of the problem not get distracted by the actual behaviour.

'How to talk so kids will listen....' is a good book.
And 'when your kids push your buttons and what to do about it' may also help.