Our Tula is Our Baby Backpack and We Use it For Time-In

We use the tula as a time-in. When Adam is having a rough evening I put him in the tula for a while until he settles down. In this picture I had him in the tula, under my sweater and we went for a walk. Before I had children I worked in a lot of child care centers and we used time out all the time. "Oh, you took a toy, go to time out," "You hit, go to time out," "You bit, go to time-out," Time-out was such an over used punishment but I guess when you are taking care of many children it is the easy way out. That was about twenty years ago, I'm not sure how time-outs go at daycares now. I never used time-out with my first three children, I never had to. With my son, I tried it a few times and it didn't really help and then I read an article about putting little children by themselves to deal with their big emotions and that doesn't make sense. "Hey kid, you've made me upset, I'm not happy with you, go be away alone to think about what you've done," I bet all they think is "I don't like being in here, I want to get out," and now they are even more unhappy than they were when they took a toy or hit their sister or whatever. So I've started saying "Okay, time for the baby backpack," and putting Adam up to get him settled down. Sometimes he starts out so mad he hits me with the straps but then I just tie them so he can't. He always gets himself sorted out, I do my chores and go about my business and let him have a moment to calm, and eventually he says in a perfectly kind and calm and happy voice, "Mommy, I'm all done with the baby backpack" and he is. Adam is still nursing to sleep most nights, I would say every night but last night he nursed and was still awake so I held him and his stuffed cat until he fell asleep. This morning when he woke up he nursed before we got up. He is a good boy most of the time and I have been paying close attention so I can tell what is making him have a hard time when he is having a hard time and I work on heading it off. So, yay for the tula as a tool for time-in and yay for whomever wrote that article about time-in versus time-out, I may be a 40-year old mother of four who knows more about childcare than anything else, but I can still learn new tricks!