Time

Okay, let's skip the part where I feel guilty about blogging so infrequently and get right down to business.

I heard two stories this week that reminded me about the funny ways in which children view time. A week is an eternity when you're waiting for your birthday to roll around, and nobody could be expected to wait another three months for Christmas to come, but several hours spent playing with your friends seems like five minutes and there are always tears when it's time to go home.

My parents, Nana and Grandpa, live next door to two small boys aged about five and three. Let's call them Thomas and Gus.

Nana was talking to their Dad over the side fence while Thomas played in the trampoline. It's an above ground model with netting around the sides to minimise the risk of falling off. Thomas was quite happy until Gus started to hassle him. He wanted to get into the trampoline too, but Thomas wasn't having it. The conversation went something like this.

"Dad, Gus won't leave me alone!"

"Thomas, let him in to play with you for a while."

"No."

"Oh go on, let him in."

"No!"

"Thomas..."

"I'm not ever going to play with him again for the rest of my life!"

So it looks like Gus has a long lonely childhood ahead of him.

On the other hand, Nana made the X-Man a pirate quilt this year. Quite simply, he loves it. It lives on his bed and is not to be moved. He recently told his mother, Ms Awesome, that he is "going to keep it forever, even until I'm twenty-one".

Needless to say, Nana was a bit chuffed. 

All of this has just reminded me of something that Mars used to say when he was small. When he was waiting for one of us to finish something so he could have our attention, he would complain "this is taking for ages!"

It's a phrase we still use. I guess it's a way of hanging on to those memories of when he was small. Nobody can mangle language like a little kid.