Time-out poll

Isaac has been at a stage for sometime where he clearly knows when he is doing things he's not supposed to. If he tries to do something we just told him not to do, he will first look slowly in our direction with a certain gleam in his eye, begging us to recognize that he is about to misbehave. If we don't intervene, he will try his hand at committing the crime over and over again.

So far we have found great success using a very stern voice from Dada. I have slightly less success in my disciplining techniques, which usually include some redirecting and an explanation about why we don't bang on the windows/eat the cat food/hang from the tub rail like it's a monkey bar. If my initial attempts don't work, I remove him from the situation or take the object he is continually putting in his mouth away. Any of these works wonderfully most of the time; none of these work well, or at all, if he is tired or cranky or hungry.

I have done a couple of time-outs with Isaac, the few times that he took a swing at me or cat-brother on purpose. I told him he was getting a time-out and why and for how long (usually a minute), sat him in a chair, and stood in front of him to block his escape, watching my watch with my angry-mom face on until the time was up. This policy seemed to work both times, but it feels lame and I wonder if there is a better way, especially since this procedure is not exactly portable should we have incidents in public that require a time-out.

So help a girl out. What would you do? For those of you who have practiced or do currently practice time-outs, especially with toddlers:

How exactly do you go about the time-out? What infractions necessitate a time-out? How long does it last? Where is it done? Have you ever given a time-out in public?