This is the ninth post in a series written by Frieda, my mother. These are her memories of Sara her first rambunctious child and their adventures on the mission field. Click this link to start at the beginning.
Some of our friends who had calm children thought Sara just lacked parental discipline. This was not the case, though I’m not saying we did everything right.
She evidently had a high pain threshold (she constantly had bumps and scrapes and bruises, but they didn’t bother her enough to deter her from jumping off things, for instance). Spankings didn’t seem to make much of an impression. We realized this when she was still a toddler in Costa Rica. If we would get too busy studying and she couldn’t get our attention some other way, she would purposefully push one of the dining room chairs across the floor, even though she knew she would be spanked. Pushing the chairs was strictly forbidden as it would make an unbearably loud, nerve-wracking noise like fingernails on a blackboard, only much louder.
Hal discovered that what worked better than spanking was to make Sara sit on a chair. He would set a timer, and she had to stay on the chair until it rang. Three minutes would seem interminable to her, and he would make the time longer as she got older.

So, YOU are the ones that came up with time-out! 🙂
Omg this is exactly what I needed at this time….this story is my life at this exact moment everybody telling me that she acts like this because I don’t spank her well i shouldn’t have to spank her I’ve been at my wits end in fact, almost gave up yesterday morning,my mother must have just heard it in my voice she took her and her sister for the night I needed a break bad… I just got home and just read ur story wow I mean wow wow thank you so much for writing this article this is exactly what I needed exactly at this moment believe me I’m pretty sure these are tears of joy….. you may have just literally saved my sanity