THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME When on Vacation

Children have no real sense of time.  To them time is an endless present.  What's happening now seems like it will go on forever and what's going to happen will never come.  This is a basic difference between adults and children and one that should be taken into account when adventuring.  Their limited concept of time means that when children are having fun, they never want to stop.  If you assure them they've been playing by that stream or on that beach for an hour, they will insist they just got there.  In the same way if things are tough, children feel they will never get better.  Telling them that they'll be up that hill or to a certain destination in ten minutes means nothing.  

All they know is that they're not there yet and ten minutes is as good as saying forever.  As any parent knows who has ever tried to hurry a child out the door to catch the school bus or make it to an appointment, children also seem to think that time can stop to accommodate them. This is where so many trips and outings go wrong, when parents feel continually held back and children continually rushed.  If you don't want to find yourself harassed beyond belief when adventuring with children, some adjustments are going to have to be made to their sense of time. Getting your children to perform within some sort of time framework is best accomplished by a series of gentle prodding.  Fortunately, adventuring is free from most of the emphasis on time that dominates our lives at home.

Some goals have to be met, however, if you adventure isn't to become one endless beach scene or play session.  Forget telling your children they have already played for an hour or have ten minutes of uphill hiking before the next break.  What they understand best is countdown.  Five more minutes to play-one more night before we leave-finish up what you're doing now-it's time to go.  After numerous warnings, a child can hardly throw a fit when you announce it really is time to stop playing.  The same strategy works for bad moments.  We're half way up the hill-we're two-thirds of the way-we're almost there-just one more corner-time for a break.  With a steady supply of progress reports, children don't have a chance to get overwhelmed by a steep hill or long hike.