cropped-Rainbow-purple-icon-on-TRANS-long.png

You are in the CalmFamily

You are in the CalmFamily

The knowledge hub

Time out should feel good

giving partner alone time parent romantic post baby a time out
Share this article:
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on email

Time out should feel good

giving partner alone time parent romantic post baby a time out
Share this article:
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on email
This resource is categorised as:
This resource is listed in the following topics

I’ve just seen this doing the rounds on Facebook, and I love it. [Image no longer available: it showed a grown up sized wooden chair with wine glass and various other things to make it an enticing place to go with a sign saying “I’m going for a time out. “]

I love it for two reasons.

Parents need a time out sometimes

Firstly, because a time out is exactly what parents need sometimes.  And a time out that feels like a treat, like something special, is just what our overwhelmed, stressed out selves need to regroup.

I’m not (necessarily) advocating that you get drunk to cope with parenting.  But I want to emphasise the concept that a time out for a parent should consist of something that the parent likes! It should be something that helps that parent to feel restored and revitalised. 

Time out should FEEL GOOD!

Time out should feel like a treat

The second reason I like this picture, is because we can equally apply the idea of time out being a chance for a treat to children as it is to their parents.

Children, just like us adults, act out when they are overwhelmed. 

Think about the moments that you snap at your partner? Are you tired? Hungry? Feeling unappreciated? Facing unrealistic expectations? Still processing a stressful day at work?

We act out when we are overloaded and overwhelmed, and our children are exactly the same.  Every time there is some seemingly purposeful negative behaviour from our child, have a think as to what the underlying reason might be.

I have a list of five things that seem to be at the heart of every single problem behaviour I see in my kids:


1. They have an unmet basic need

They are cold, tired, hungry, thirsty, need a poo. (Does your 5 year old suddenly go nuts just before they take themselves off to the loo?). They’re unwell, understimulated, overstimulated etc. 
This is like when you find yourself snapping in response to being asked the thousandth question in a row when you’ve only eaten toddler leftovers all day and you actually really need to go for a pee.

2. Our expectation of them is unrealistic

For example, expecting your three year old to sit quietly for a long family meal where nobody is talking to them, and they have ENERGY to burn off? Cue the cutlery throwing/ketchup smearing/shrieking etc etc.
Maybe you want to do this when you’re asked to provide a five course meal for in-laws after a full on day at work. Especially, if nobody else has thought to do the shopping or tidy the kitchen while you were gone.  Want to throw cutlery? I would!

3. They don’t know what you expect of them

You never properly explained the expectation to your child. Does she actually know that when she leaves her friend’s house she has to leave the toys she was playing with behind? Or has this come as a massive shock to her? She might not have had enough playdates to have worked out the rules of who owns what yet, and how this whole toy sharing/visiting friends thing works.
Have you ever felt that awful hot feeling of realising that something you thought was ok is actually not ok at all?
I remember picking wonderfully ripe delicious plums in a garden and eating them merrily before being told that these were not supposed to be picked, and were being saved for some competition.  I felt terrible!

4. They are dealing with an unprocessed emotional upset

Either they are feeling something right now, or something happened this morning (or this week, or this year, or this lifetime) that upset them, and they haven’t had a chance to deal with it.  Maybe someone snatched a toy from them.  Or they felt unfairly treated at school, or left out by a friend. Perhaps you were busy with the new baby just when they wanted a cuddle. 

Our emotions massively affect how our brains are able to behave. A big enough dose of emotion causes our rational brain to go offline altogether. Instead we are at the mercy of our stress responses – that fight, flight, freeze response.  This is why we yell at our kids when we suddenly couldn’t find them in the playground – the big dose of sheer terror that we’ve lost our child comes bursting out as anger towards our child when we then find them. Pretty irrational hey?  

And our emotions don’t have to be current to affect us.  If we didn’t get a chance to process emotions from earlier, then they can still pop back up to send us into fight/flight/freeze mode much later on. 
This is like when your stress at work spills over into your evening at home with your partner.  The day of dealing with difficult clients has you coming home and playing out the arguments you couldn’t have at work with your family instead. 

5. They feel disconnected from you

They don’t want to do what you ask, and their automatic response to any request is ‘NO!’

Think about how you and your partner help each other out when you are getting on.  When you feel connected, supported, recognised, understood.  Doing things to help each other feels great in these moments doesn’t it?
But when you are feeling unappreciated, resentful, as if you are doing more than your fair share already?  Well, suddenly you don’t feel like doing things to help the other one so much. 

Those are my five reasons.  And I don’t actually think there are any other reasons.  If you can think of others, please stick them in the comments and let me know!

Reflect: helping you feel better

giving partner alone time parent romantic post baby a time out

Now, for each of those five situations for you, what do you think would help you feel better? What would help you feel less ratty, less snappy, more like being helpful and loving again?

Would punishing you help?

Would a time out where you are left alone to ‘think about your attitude’ help you feel happy and calm again? I think I’d probably just keep working myself up into more of a stew going over the unfairness of it all in my head!

But what about a time out like the chair in the picture.  Where you have your favourite things around you, and feel just a little spoilt? Might a bit of time soaking that feeling up help you feel restored and ready to engage with the world again?

Reflect: helping your kids feel better

Look at each of those situations again, and have a think about whether punishing them would help them.

And if punishing isn’t going to work, what could work instead?

How about a timeout for them that feels good? That feels like a treat? Cuddles, some stories, songs or silly games? Time for you to fully concentrate on them and load them up with love? Time to restore some of that connection and give them a chance to process some of those emotional upsets from earlier? Give them a moment to calm down and notice their own underlying hunger and eat the snack you’ve left out for them?

Give it a try and see what happens. I think you’ll like the results!

#timeoutshouldfeelgood

By Alexandra Harris

​For more on what is going on in your toddler’s brains, and how to support them, have a look at https://www.calmfamily.org/.   Go to find a class to see what is running local to you.

Recommend0 recommendationsPublished in Being a parent, Calmer relationships, Family mental health, Toddler behaviour, Toddler discipline, Toddlers
Resources by category
Resources by topic
Resources by type

Post comments

Responses

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Online groups

Ask in a forum

Find a consultant