Maybe this a british thing.....but I don't get this one.

...think "go to your room" but with more time to think about your misdeeds, less opportunity to play PSP and a requirement to apologise for what you did wrong before you can get back to enjoying your 6-year old hijinks and escapades.

I would say it's equivalent to a time out. Interesting to see a British take on these ads. Sometimes we forget that there are other perspectives, rather than just the "American way."

It's like being told to go and stand in the corner when you're naughty.

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Guest wrote:
Maybe this a british thing.....but I don't get this one.

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Guest wrote:
...tbefore you can get back to enjoying your 6-year old hijinks and escapades.

the correct word would be 'tomfoolery', not escapades, as clearly demonstraded in the 'Piechart' episode (see same site)...

The Brits cottoned on to children a long, long time ago.

Sending a naughty child to their room gives them escape from the ever-seeing eye of their gaurdians. You might go to the room to find the child engaging in such miscreant behaviour as colouring in books (with coloured pencils, using colours with the "u" in them), reading or daydreaming.

If, however, you banish the incorrigible youth to the stairs (this only works in 2-storey cottages), they cannot partake in any illicit activity. Even worse, they are fully aware of the fact that everyone else is still having fun! Such torture as only the terribly civilised peoples of British descent could devise.

The "naughty step" would usually be three or four steps up a flight of stairs. Not far enough up that the youth could abscond to the privacy of their room when you turn your back for a moment. Not close enough to the bottom to interfere with the well behaved folk going about their legitimate business.