I've heard that the perception of time section of the human mental circuit board doesn't come in until later in life. Now that I have kids I know this to be true. They will ask for something, receive some flavor of "yes, but later." and then keep asking every 45 or so seconds. Jace is especially good at this. He'll ask "Can I have a snack?" or "Can I play on your phone?" incessantly. This last Sunday I was probably asked the latter of these two questions 18 times. It can get a bit frustrating. If we choose to hold our ground on a matter, we'll answer each of these questions with "after 10:30" or "not today." If we're feeling like lesser parents, we'll try to reason with the kids, "Stop asking! The answer is no." That doesn't work. So we cope by throwing a curve ball like "Let me think about it." That works for a while simply because it's different. But eventually impatience wins out and they go right back to asking. Other distractions are sometimes effective - movies, games, toys. But most of the time, resolution of the need happens when the time comes for the request or when the kids have worn us down to a mere stump of parental consistency and we give in.
Maybe that's why they keep asking.
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