Timeouts are they working?

How can you tell if giving your child a timeout is working? Caitlin often gets timeouts for misbehaving. The misbehavior ranges from not following directions, not sharing, and hitting her brother. When I give her a timeout I send her to her room. She is to stay there until she calms down and will say she is sorry if she hurt her brother. She usually is only in her room for 3-4 minutes. We talk about what she did as well. According to the literature that the pediatrician handed out and most other experts I have read, this is the way to do timeouts.

Is it working? Sometimes Caitlin will come out of timeout and say she is sorry and then go right back to the previous offense. I send her back sometimes 3-4 times. Eventually she decides to behave. I know she needs to learn that their are consequences to her actions. I guess kids don't learn this too quickly. And they seem to forget the lesson after a short time.

I think that the timeouts are sometimes just as much for me as her. Sometimes I need the timeout to regain some patience lost. That short time allows me to calm down too.

I guess they are working. I just wish there was a quicker and easier way to deal with this stuff. If anyone has a good suggestion, please share.

Until then I think I will try to bottle the magic the grandparents seem to have. The kids never misbehave when they watch them. They are either magical or good liars.