Originally Posted by Crystal:
Children learn absolutely NOTHING from being secluded/excluded/confined. They learn from being a part of the group, and from a consistent and knowledgeable adult guiding them to proper behavior.
I disagree completely but assuming you are correct:
1) It's okay that they don't learn anything from it.
2) Knowing Pitter's funding for the kids she cares for there simply isn't enough money to provide a consistent and knowledgeable adult to guide one child into proper behavior. She makes a couple of dollars an hour. That kind of guidance requires an adult specifically FOR the child to protect the property and the other kids. An adult for this child would be much more than the parents could afford or Pitter could afford.
Seclusion and confinement work very well and is an affordable alternative to having an adult one to one a kid whether that child be a biter, hitter, toy basher, or whatever other untoward behavior the child is displaying.
What's lacking now is the ability to put a child who repeatedly offends NOT in a confined area but TO BED. This kid needs to
GO TO BED and stay in bed for a good while. When he gets a good lot of that THEN he needs to go into a confined area to play and slooooowly bit by bit be reintroduced into the free play he so bodly abused.
It's unfortunate that "go to bed" has been removed as an alternative discipline for child care providers. It worked FABULOUSLY in previous generations (second only to a spanking) but Lord forbid we do anything but "guide" the child at two bucks an hour.
These kids aren't getting better behaved as time goes on. As we strip away every meaningful discipline from providers you are going to see reactions like Mac60's. What she is REALLY saying is that she's given NOTHING that really works that isn't so costly and time consuming that the fees for the child do not come CLOSE to managing it.
Mac60: I understood what you were saying and I don't believe you meant for a week on a blanket all day long. I think what you were saying is that the consequence can't be metered out over three minutes and have it work... that the kid needs to be excluded from what he is abusing... and it needs to be over a few days so each time he is excuded from that activitiy he sees that the gig he had before was a heckofalot better than the gig on the blanket.