TOD 02.20.08

This weekend I took the boys to play at a large park near our house. In preparing to go, Spencer requested all of his favorite outside toys: baseballs, basketball, glove, bat, golf balls, Frisbee, and more. Once we got there, a fascinating thing happened. Spencer wanted to play Frisbee, but only for a moment. Then he wanted to hit balls, but only for a moment. Then he wanted to play soccer, then bouncing golf balls, then back to Frisbee, and so on.

He couldn’t stand to stick with any one activity very long because his eye would catch sight of some other activity he was missing. With so many options, the opportunity cost of doing one became unbearably high because it meant not doing three others. He was a whirling Dervish of activity as he literally tried doing them all simultaneously.

So I decided to stand back and let him calm down to the point where I could do just one thing with him properly. Naturally, I felt somewhat to blame for his overwhelmed condition. After all, I’m the one who gave a three-year-old more options than he could handle.