Does Putting Children in Time-out Really Work?

Joey was a foster child that came into our home with his older brother of five years old. Joey was two and a half and full of energy, curiosity, and little to much bravery. On one occasion he was taking delight at throwing toys at my very frightened cat. I caught him in the act and told him he needed to stop doing that, it wasn't a nice thing to do. He chose instead to continue. I told him a second time he needed to stop, then added that if he did it one more time he would be put in time-out. This didn't phase him one bit. Apparently scaring the cat held more interest for him then the very idea of sitting in time-out. Again, he threw toys at my cat, that by this time had found her way under his bed and was hissing nonstop.

Adding a little more tone to my voice I told him once again to stop doing that or he would be placed in time-out. What he did next has, over the years baffled me and made me wonder if this whole concept of "Time-Out" is worth a hill of beans.

He looked directly at me, bent down, picked up a plastic airplane and threw it has hard as he could at the cat, turned and walked himself to time-out and sat down. I let him sit there for a minute then went in to talk to him about what had just occurred. He was seated, knees up and elbows resting on top of them with his head in his hands. Clearly a sad and disheartening picture.

I ask him why he threw toys at the cat and his answer was simple, "Because she hissed at me." When asked why the cat hissed at him he explained, "Because, she doesn't like me." My next question, of course, why the cat didn't like him. His answer, "Because I threw toys at her."

Have you ever had a moment when you really felt as if you missed out on something? This was mine. I told him that if he didn't throw toys at the cat, the cat wouldn't hiss at him and make him believe she didn't like him. I further explained that the cat was a nice cat and just wanted him to pet her, not be mean to her.

Somehow, that made sense to him because we never had another episode of cat tormenting again.