Jo Frost

The Frost Method is to be able to emotionally connect with your child

but to be grounded in your communication so that you can instill healthy boundaries to reset the circumstance at the time.

You cannot keep thinking to yourself, oh, I'm going to do a timeout.

I'm going to keep doing a timeout to control the child to get them to do something.

A timeout will not teach a child how to use a knife and fork properly.

Practice will.

The steps to an effective timeout is to recognize, first and foremost, your values, your family values, understanding what's a deal breaker for you.

So know your values first, what's acceptable, what isn't, okay?

As parents raising your children,

and teach your children the importance of connecting and understanding what it looks like to be kind to another human being, what it looks like to have manners and etiquette and sit at a table, to be considerate of friends when they come around to play.

Connect with your kid first, with your child first, teach them and then

When you see the behavior that's been crossed, the rule that's been broken, because boundaries are about us, right?

You uphold your boundary.

And upholding that boundary may look like this is unacceptable, this is not okay.

And at this moment, you know, we're going to be doing a timeout.

So I always teach families to give a child a warning first, right?

Because it allows a child to make a decision first.

Now, some parents will say and some experts will argue, well, they don't really know.

They don't know how to make that decision.

But I think we underestimate children greatly because I know children that exactly know how to get what they want because they've been taught by their parents.