5 Difficult Truths That Shifted My View of Timeouts as Discipline I used to believe timeouts were a ‘gentler’ alternative to punishment. I thought they taught kids to calm down, reflect, and do better next time. But the more I learned about child development and the nervous system, the more I realized that timeouts weren’t the teaching tool I thought they were. Here are 5 hard truths that changed everything for me: 1️⃣ Timeouts don’t teach self-regulation. They teach kids to suppress emotions al