Time and children
The concept of time for children is a long process of learning.
My four year old twins know how to say one minute and so on, but they have no concept of how long one minute is. One of the examples of this is M. At four years old we have the same conversation on a regular basis at bedtime. Occasionally we allow the girls to watch night garden just before going to sleep in their beds and I always say three minutes, that’s all M, to which she replies four minutes, I will always say ok because I know she has no idea, not a clue about how long four minutes is, so after about 45 seconds to a minute I say that’s it your four minutes are finished, and she instantly say ok! I turn the tv off and off she goes to sleep.
The downside of not having any concept of time is of course when they want you to do something and how many of us have said this I know I have a million times “in a minute”. Remembering now that your four year old child has no concept of time they wear you down until you do it and get what they want and they will repeatly ask every five seconds until you do it because they have no idea how long a minute is.
Having older children has actually given me the opportunity to see when you have a concept of time how much pressure is put upon you to do it now and unfortunately they have no understanding when it comes to the concept of time.
My 18 year old daughter text me from university asking me for her national insurance number and saying I need it now. One problem I had first of all was that I didn’t know it and had no idea where to find it. After what seemed like a split second I replied and said I don’t know, but at 18 years old she has complete understanding of time, but the insisting that I find it straight away was still there.
The comparison between the ages is really that they are not much different. They both instantly want it now even though one understands time and the other doesn’t.
I often wonder how old they will be when they realise that not everything can be done instantly and actually I have things to do too!
How do your children define time?
6 Comments
Charlotte
June 24, 2016 at 8:44 am
The young age and not knowing time is great, especially convincing them it's later than it is. I have used this to get them to bed by 6 many times. My eldest is just at the age where she is starting to click on #binkylinky
Nigel
July 4, 2016 at 8:17 pm
It's brilliant how easy it is to con them on time thanks for commenting
David Mellor
June 24, 2016 at 8:45 am
This is really funny because all I can think about is my toddler forever saying that he can have something in or for ten minutes. Everything is ten minutes. He literally has no idea how long that is but he has worked out it's a ploy to get us to give in to something haha.
Potty Adventures
#binkylinky
Nigel
July 4, 2016 at 8:18 pm
So true they really have no idea thanks for commenting ate
Jeremy Barnes
June 24, 2016 at 3:07 pm
Neither one of my kids, the 5 or the 16 year old, seem to understand what the words "hurry up" mean. They get the concept of time, just not that it should apply to them #binkylinky
Nigel
July 4, 2016 at 8:18 pm
This is so true lol thanks for commenting