We don’t have our children kneel on rice when they are bad. At the same time, I don’t really believe in the five-minute timeout. I am absolutely somewhere in the middle. I would say the harshest punishment that I give out is when I make my children leave play dates, birthday parties or any other gathering when they misbehave or don’t respond to my requests. And it stinks because I like to be around my friends too. So in a way, I am punishing myself when we leave a good time. But I know in the end, my children will listen to me more by doing such things. Full disclosure: we hardly have to dole out this punishment these days. My kids know that if I threaten it… it’s happening. It’s always nice to have in my back pocket though.