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Taking a Break:
A Technique for Addressing the Heart

The Scriptures emphasize that God’s primary interest is the heart. The wise parent looks beyond behavior to what’s going on at a deeper level. This involves the child’s attitudes and motivations.

As you begin to use the secret of teaching children to focus on their hearts, you will see them make attitude adjustments, not just behavior changes. You will find yourself getting to the root of disobedience or immaturity and helping children make lifelong changes.

Taking a Break removes a child from a situation or activity immediately following misbehavior. A reminder of the rule may be helpful and the child is instructed to Take a Break to change the heart. The location for Taking a Break is a place away from any activity or stimulation. The child shouldn’t talk to anyone until ready to return to the parent. The parent also shouldn’t dialog with the child until the child is ready to come back. Other benefits of family life are suspended while the child is working on the heart. Taking a Break allows the child, under the guidance of the parent, to determine when to come back and talk about the problem. When used correctly, Taking a Break can help children look deeper than behavior and see the need to allow God to work on their hearts.

Taking a Break is not the same as time out. Many Christians have a hard time with time out, and for good reasons. Typically, time out is a term used for isolating a child as a punishment for doing wrong by simply sending that child away for a set period of time. This is “punishment by isolation” and can be counterproductive to the discipline process. Expecting children to solve problems alone is unrealistic. Furthermore, the isolation can appear to force children away from the love of the parent. Taking a Break is a much more valuable technique because, if done correctly, it focuses on the heart.

The goal of Taking a Break is repentance. Taking a Break teaches children a more accurate picture of reality. There is a loving God who hates sin. When His children disobey Him, they experience separation as a natural consequence of disobedience. God lovingly waits for them to return to Him with confession and repentance.

Taking a Break provides the motivation to repent by allowing the child to experience the feeling of missing out on involvement in family life. Parents can force a child to change actions but they can’t force a change of heart. Parents can, however, motivate children to change. Because separation can motivate repentance, Taking a Break can be helpful as part of the discipline process rather than being viewed simply as a consequence.

Through the principle of separation, children learn that a person cannot enjoy the benefits of the family without also abiding by the principles which make it work. Parents, while communicating unconditional love, teach their children that separation is the natural consequence of disobedience.

One important aspect of Taking a Break is that the child helps determine the length of time spent in the break location. Since repentance is the goal, it’s hard for a parent to tell when a child is ready to return. To come back from Taking a Break too soon may short-circuit what God wants to do. To remain too long may cause unnecessary discouragement. The wise parent will be able to discern from the child’s face, posture, and tone of voice whether repentance has taken place, or at least that the emotions have settled down so the child can move on in the discipline process.

When Taking a Break the child stays in the break place until he or she has calmed down and is ready to talk about the problem. The child then initiates returning to the parent for the Positive Conclusion, a discussion about what went wrong and what should be done differently next time. This is a primary difference between the Godly model of Taking a Break and that which is often practiced in time out. The length of time a child chooses for Taking a Break isn’t important except as it relates to the child’s needs. Frequently all that’s needed is a reminder and the child is ready to change the heart and try again. In this case, Taking a Break would be short, lasting only a few seconds. Other times, because of stubbornness, a change of heart may take longer, twenty minutes or several hours. Either way, the child is encouraged to initiate when Taking a Break is over.

Taking a Break Can Be Used In Your Family

From a very practical standpoint, Taking a Break can be an excellent way to deal with much of the day-to-day correction children need. It can become the primary discipline technique used in a family to help children change. The three-year-old who screams out of frustration, the seven-year-old who continually interrupts, and the thirteen-year-old who teases relentlessly all need to understand why their actions are wrong and see the need to change the heart as well as their habits of behavior.

At first, children may resist Taking a Break. Some may not want to lengthen the discipline process; they’ll try to get it over with too quickly. These children are especially in danger of modifying behavior without repentance. It’s important for children to learn how to Take a Break and make sure their heart is responding properly before they move to the solution.

Children may try to come out before they are ready or they may defiantly move out of the place where they were told to sit. The parent’s responsibility is to teach children that they must obey. A parent may restrain a child by holding them or by firmly returning the child to the correct spot. These actions are best accomplished with as few words as possible so as not to encourage the rebellion by giving attention to it. The parent must win in these situations in order to make Taking a Break an effective discipline in the future.

Even children as young as three- or four-years-old, although not able to understand the word “repentance,” can understand having a soft heart or removing rebellion from the heart. The first step of repentance is simply that the child settles down, stops fighting, and is ready to work on the problem. Older children are able to process some of what went wrong and come back to the parent with a specific plan for what to do right next time. In essence children can use Taking a Break to settle down, realize they’ve done something wrong and be willing to change.

Sometimes children, especially those who are just learning to Take a Break, want to come back before they are ready, or they choose to stay there longer than necessary. The parent then must help these children to process their emotions and learn to initiate the conclusion of the discipline appropriately. In these cases it might be appropriate to have a child sit in the break place for at least five minutes. The emphasis on “at least” is important because it may take longer than that. The child needs to evaluate his or her readiness to return.

It is most beneficial to follow Taking a Break with a Positive Conclusion, which not only helps to determine genuine readiness to return but also helps the child process the offense in a wise way. As you teach your children to Take a Break and to understand repentance, you are giving them a valuable gift that will last a lifetime.

This material is taken from the book, Home Improvement, The Parenting Book You Can Read to Your Kids. The book contains many practical ideas for helping children change their hearts, not just their behavior.