These kids have a way of always squeezing a little bit more out of you, don’t they? If I had received a pound for each time that I had heard the words; “in a minute” or their distant cousins; “hang on” or “just let me …”, I would be richer than the Queen.
Do these sound familiar to you?
“Can I have a little bit more ice cream?”
“I will get up in a few minutes.”
“I just want to watch the end of this program.”
“I will get dressed in a minute.”
“I will come in in in five minutes.”
“Just five more pushes on the swing” and then “Just five more pushes.”
“I just need to finish this chapter.” (Not a bad one but always comes when you need them to be doing something else)
“Can I have one more story and then I promise I will go to sleep.”
“Can’t I have a shower tomorrow?”
“I’ll do my homework later/tomorrow.”
“Hang on.. hang on… in a sec…”
“I just need to finish this level.”
“I’m not tired.”
It is amazing how important these insignificant things can become when you want your children to do something else, with them suddenly ‘needing’ and ‘having to do these things at that time and it is the end of the world if you say no. I bet that if you added up all of those extra minutes that they use up at times like this, they would add up to quite a lot over a few weeks or months. In fact, if a child spent an extra five minutes doing something every day for a year, that would be over thirty hours of procrastination. Thirty hours!
Yet these excesses of parental kindness and never-ending stretching of time never seem to be remembered by our loving offspring do they? How often do you hear the following?
“Can I have a few more vegetables?”
“I have to tidy up first.”
“Can I help you mum/dad?
“No I don’t want any pudding/sweets/chocolate, thank you.”
” I would love to go to bed early.”
“Yes I will come off my game straight away.” (or even better to come off without being cajoled, nagged, shouted at or threatened with a lifelong ban)
“I am doing extra homework.”
Or even better, them simply getting up and doing things without being asked. That would be nice.
Oh yes, these are so familiar! I think if they started doing as they were told we’d be getting the thermometer and Calpol out!
Sarah MumofThree World recently posted…The school uniform secret
That is true or start looking for those flying pigs!
Yup, first list all very familiar, second list never uttered in this house!
sonya cisco recently posted…Double Feature
Yes I am going to train my lot over the summer on the second list