1-2-3 Time-Out 

    “Kids, stop jumping on the couch.  Ple-e-ease, stop jumping on the couch. Guys, come o-on.  Ple-e-e-ease sto-op.  Gu-uys…” With the risk of sounding more like air passing through a mangled trumpet, I plead at the mercy of my children. Sound at all familiar?  A melody no different than the drone of a whining child at the grocery check out. “Mom, can I have a candy bar?  Mo-um, ple-e-e-ease can I have a candy bar…?  Pleeeease?”    Parents, you know what I am talking about.
     This whiny technique may occasionally offer rewarding results for a relentless child, but let’s face it, this tactic is guaranteed failure for the pleading parent. 
Most of us are familiar with the “1-2-3 time out” or “1-2-3 toy take away” concept.  But how many of us are consistent and unshakable with this approach?   How many of us lag through o-o-o-o-0-0ne, then after counting to tw-o-o-o actually remind our child that we are almost at thre-e-e?  Even after more than fair warning, many of us start counting again but THIS TIME as if we mean business and ultimately never proceed with a penalty?  As parents, we simply have to be more disciplined than our children and more actively involved in their discipline.  The 1-2-3 approach does not involve negotiation, and its methodology is not to prevent a parent from reaching three and acting out on a punishment.  If that were the case, it would be called the on-you-mark, get set, I’m almost at one, prepare for two, let’s never get to three… approach.  Yes, we all have those lazy days when we don’t feel like reacting because we know that it will abolish that one enjoyable moment of peace we craved for all day.  In sluggish situations like this, there is only one solution: if you are not going to enforce it, do not request it.  Children are able to identify your weak moments.  Through the lack of consistency, they will recognize a glitch in your discipline plan.  Know that they will ultimately test their theories.  So, if you are absolutely, undeniably, indisputably incapable of following through with a demand and you’re child is not in harms way, let it ride.  Of course, if you have consistently exercised this reliable method of discipline, you probably can ask them once and relax into the easy chair knowing that your direction is received and respected.