123 Magic

I was thinking on getting a copy of this book, but wondered if someone could tell me the basics about it? I never read HSHHC, but did learn a lot of its principles from some of the posts on here. (The main thing that helped me a lot from posts on here about that book was no more than 2 hours of awake time.) Just wondered if there was a couple main points like this that sticks out of 123 Magic that you could share. I'll probably still get the book and read it anyway, but wanted to make sure it sounds like something I might try.

 

The main concept of the book is that you should remain calm and indifferent when infractions occur. First infraction, just say "Jackson (or your child's name), that's 1". Second infraction: "Jackson, that's 2." Third infraction: "Jackson, that's 3. Take five." You take them to time out and tell them they need to stay there and can come out when you tell them to. They stay in for 1 minute per year of life.

They use the "take five" terminology but I just say "time out" instead of "take five." Personal preference. Keeping calm and neutral is very important. No yelling, no threatening. It's just kind of letting them know that there is a new system and they can have control of their destiny (TO or not) based on how they behave. Consistency is VERY important. Some severe behaviors, like biting, can be an immediate "3" and send them straight to TO without 3 chances.

I am sure some others took different points away from the book as well, but these points are what have been most important for us to be effective with our discipline.

 

I've just started to read the book. It's a simple concept but most people who do it on their own aren't doing it correctly. So far I've learned that too much talking and explaination goes on during the situation with the child. Like "if you don't stop that you're getting a time out" instead of just saying "that's one". Or "okay now that's 2, you better behave because mommy doesn't like when you do that you need to stop now or....". Parents just go on and on and it's just not effective.
I've told a few friends about this book and they all say, "oh we just do time-out, that's very effective" but what this book teaches you is to stop the behavior sooner rather than later and hopefully avoid doing a lot of time-outs.

 

Interesting. I wonder how long it takes them to grasp the cause/effect aspect of it, and to understand that after the first two warnings comes the time out. I'll probably have to wait several months to actually start implementing it. I like the idea of the non-threatening and calm attitude approach.

 

A couple of weeks ago I checked this book out at my local library. However, I only got to the first few pages, because it stated not to start it until your kids are 2. Is anyone using this method w/ children younger than 2, and does it work?