Dad Gets a Time Out

Time out...what does that mean anyway?

I was given a time out at Minneapolis airport a few weeks ago. I was there with my wife and child, and my daughter was playing on a small playground in the airport (what a good idea!) A dirty little boy cut in front of her while she was patiently waiting her turn to drive the baggage cart...and then had the nerve to push her from her seat while she took her turn.

I was angry, as much at this brat as I was his mother who was staring into space while her child hurt my little girl...as well as 2 other children in the short time I was there.

My wife knows my mad look by now...I don't have much of a poker face. Nostrils flared, body rigid, fists clenched. I was given a time out.

I probably needed a time out, because for a moment I was deciding what physical harm I could legally do to this child...but after finally pushing another child within his mother's narrow attention range, she threatened him with the deadly time-out.

This child was shaken...you could tell that his mother really was going to follow through with a severe punishment if he didn't heed her time-out warning. Note the sarcasm...the truth is he heard her and was content to return to playing out of her attention range, and continue to be as horrible as ever.

Time-outs may certainly work for adults, and some children as well I assume, but this child needed something a little more severe.

Not that I'd be one to give advice to other parents...even one's who suck at it.