It Sounds So Academic and He's Just a Baby

I try to be very careful about the wording I use with Parker. For instance, I try to give him a truthful indication of how long a task is expected to take. "Parker, mommy and daddy are going to leave you here (in the nursery) for a while. It's going to seem like a really long time to you, but it will really only be for three hours, and I promise we will come back and get you. If it is at all in our power we will come back and get you." I don't know how many of these words he understands, but still I try to be as accurate with my language as possible.

However, it is very difficult to break the habit of using "just a minute" to apply to all sorts of possible time frames. "Parker, I am going to take a shower now. You go and play with Daddy and I'll be out in just a minute." That of course is before he starts banging on the door and crying to get it. "Baby, you stay out there. I'll be out in just a minute."

So do you think he's too young to understand that words can have many different meanings? I think he probably is, and that being the case I fear that I have given him a very confusing idea of what a minute entails.

Of course, Parker understands much more of what we say than we necessarily know, and giving him accurate information now can only prepare us and him for understanding complicated abstractions later on.

When Parker was much smaller I would sit out on my front steps and tell him as many multi-syllabic words as I could think of. Then I'd choose a letter and think of words beginning with that letter. It was more an opportunity to let him hear my voice than any sort of learning exercise for him. Funny how I don't do that anymore, although the fact that he no longer sits still on my lap has much to do with it.