No one puts Baby in the corner

I had a play date this past week, with a very hip friend (who will remain nameless, but we’ll call her V) who has 2 boys, 2 and 4. Of course, during the course of play, someone inevitable gets in trouble (and for once, it wasn’t mine). V promptly went over to the couch and from underneath pulled out a time-out mat, and put it in the kitchen and put the 2 year old right on it. I was intrigued, after all, my boys put their noses against the wall. I’ve seen chairs in corners, bodies in corners, but alas, not a mat. And a commercial mat! And she swears by this mat, and I agree, because they could do whatever they wanted, they just couldn’t be off the mat. Sit, kneel, stand, whatever. She has the blue one pictured, and has been using it with her 4 year old since he was little, and now the torch was passed. Of course, the little one kept putting a foot off the mat, and V corrected him, and pretty much ignored him after that. Mine just sat and stared.

I guess my consequences are a little archaic (read: cheap, because y’all know I’m not paying $26 for a time-out mat, especially if I can get a dollar store mat that could do the same thing!), like filling a big bowl with river rocks (go Michael’s!), and use a spoon to take one rock at a time up a flight of stairs to fill a second bowl. That is actually a variation on my husband’s idea of carrying large rocks. I feared broken toes. The rock thing has actually worked, it’s fun for like the first 5 rocks or so, then tedium and boredom set in. It took him about an hour, but he kept slowing down, soon, he was just crawling up the stairs. We’ve only had to do it twice, so mission accomplished!