Time Out

Tonight, Troy got frustrated and hauled off and clocked me in the side of the face with his fist. I was focused on something else, and I didn’t see it coming. I have to say that he delivered it perfectly and with a legitimate amount of force. He’s been hitting us a lot lately, usually when he doesn’t get his way, so in order to address it, I took him in the other room and put him in time-out. He immediately dissolved into a crying fit at the injustice of my actions.

I left him in there for five minutes or so until he finally stopped crying. I then asked him if he was ready to rejoin the family, and he replied in the affirmative. After he was back in the den, he got a book, brought it over to me, stopped in front of me, and then hauled off and hit me again.

So, the time-out was a useless way to deal with this behavior. I’m going to have to find another way. We need to address it before it gets worse.