Charles was melty this evening. I got him started on writing thank you notes for his birthday presents, which caused him to realize that one of those presents (a Lego™ kit) had met with an accident and not been repaired. When asked, Charles said that he couldn’t find some of the pieces, but was unable to state what those pieces might be or whether he had looked for them. Eventually, after much sniveling and rebuffed offers to help with repairs, Mom sent him up to his room. A bit later Mom says, “where’s Charles?” and when I say “up in his room” Mom looks at me blankly wondering why Charles would be up there.
But eventually the Charles mind moved on to other things, such as planning for a potential trip to the Big City.
Mom: What would you like to do in the Big City?
Charles: Visit the Lego™ store!
Alice: Visit the Disney store!
Charles: Visit both every hour for 24 hours.
Dad: You’ll get bored of the Lego™ store in less than an hour.
Charles: That’s why we need to go every hour.
Dad: And how long would we spend each visit?
Charles: As long as we want!
Dad: We need a planning number.
Charles: Hmmm. 45 minutes!
Dad: You’ll only need 15 minutes to recharge your interest?
Charles. Yes. [silence for a minute or so] Maybe 40 minutes.
<hanging head> I have put a child in timeout and forgotten.…
