Generally for as many minutes as they are years old. It works out that way because that's about as long as they can remember why they're in time-out.

I'm surprised, as a non-parent expert on parenthood, you don't know this.

Children are extraordinarily intelligent young animals. They need to be trained, not indulged. One trains them as one expects them to behave, and one models the behavior one expects them to pick up.

If they interrupt, as with the manners one would expect of anyone else, they are corrected ("Mommy is speaking to Mr. Tech. Just a moment.") and put on hold. If the child is truly an infant, it's up to the adults to understand. But infanthood is not the stage of development being discussed here.

Any child who can interrupt a conversation with words can be made to wait. The secret is knowing how long to do so, and when. An elementary-school-aged child ought to cool his heels for 5 minutes, because he should know better. A three-year-old should be made to wait for two or three more sentences of conversation, after which the parent can choose to say to the other adult, "Excuse me a moment, please" (thus demonstrating appropriate ways to interrupt) and address the child. A child exhibiting symptoms of physical distress -- not just of temper -- or who is learning to use the toilet must have that attention, but it's up to the parent to notice this. A child having a fit of temper must never be rewarded, and must be removed promptly without a word about whatever they wanted.

Also, "Excuse me" isn't license to barrel into every conversation with what we call an '"I like elephants" moment'. (At the dinner table, when the younger children would interrupt a conversation with a non-sequiter, my oldest daughter would say, "I like elephants." The younger child would become sufficiently confused by this remark to stop her talking, thus enabling the conversation to continue.) I have encountered children who believe that one can push into any situation by saying "Excuse me" as if it were a command rather than a request. I respond with "I'll be with you in just a minute", because the person I was talking to is also important. If they persist with the Excuse Me command, I eventually say, "No, I don't excuse you. I will talk to you as soon as I'm finished here. Please wait your turn." The concept of No is usually quite a surprise to this child.

We also had, and have, the Five-Minute Rule in our family for children 7 years old and up. If the child is curious about a conversation, he or she must be quiet and listen carefully for five minutes to see if the topic becomes clear. After five minutes (more or less), the child may ask as many questions about the conversation as necessary to make it clear. If a child seeks to interrupt before the five minutes, anyone in the conversation can say, "Five Minute Rule", and the child would know to wait and listen or be banished. It doesn't take many repetitions for them to learn this, especially when all questions are answered without impatience or hesitance after they have waited and listened carefully. This teaches three things: how to listen, how to be patient, and how to respect other people's social interactions.

Working with children as I do, I can spot the children whose parents are doormats, dingbats or tyrants.

The doormats have children who are impervious to discipline by anyone, because their parents not only don't teach restraint, but consider rudeness to be an expression of self-confidence and defiance to be (somehow) cute. Everything their child does is wonderful. Think Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

The dingbats' children will respond to discipline, but with great surprise and a little fear, because their parents infrequently speak to them about their behavior, so they truly don't know how to act. These parents believe that children are naturally good and kind, so all that needs to be curbed is their occasional desire to play in traffic or eat toadstools. Think Peter Pan.

Tyrants' children are afraid to say anything at all, unless their parent isn't present. This differs from the truly shy child, whose behavior doesn't vary dependent on whether the parent is there or not. Tyrants' children can be real hellions in their parent's absence. Think Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.

You may find this hard to believe, but I don't detect a particular political orientation involved in any of these methods of childrearing, nor in any of their outcomes.

Children benefit by parents not jumping up immediately when their children demand attention, after the period of infancy and toddlerhood is over. Children learn their manners by observation and by what of their behavior is rewarded. If we would have patient, articulate, respectful children who will grow into adults with the same characteristics, we must teach them how to wait, how to listen, and we must acknowledge them when they talk in turn.