The actual idea behind time out is to get the parent to cool off They are the real problem in a confrontation It s rare that children need to cool off The theory behind adult time outs is that you deprive the child of your attention Of course in our electronic gadget society where children hardly ever see their parents anyways that accomplishes nothing So as a replacement for spending time with one s child and paying attention to them most of the time someone invented the child time out as a form of punishment instead This is not an acceptable trade off and that s why child time outs are bad They re still better than physical abuse of course Ark