Rough Theory

My son has just made a sort of conceptual breakthrough. He’s at an age where all activities must be repeated over and over and over – and over. Whoever believes that children have short attention spans really should compare them to their parents…

Fortunately, my son is also an expert negotiator so, when I can begin to feel brain cells suiciding from the Nth repetition of an activity, we hold a conversation that goes something like: “X more times?” He’ll contemplate this, and occasionally suggest a different number (since his numerical knowledge is still slightly shaky, sometimes the revised number involves fewer repetitions… ;-P). And then we count down the repetitions, until the final one, when I’ll announce, “Last time?”. Up until today, he has always followed this with a nod and a confirming “Last time!” And then we usually do one final repetition, and the activity ends peacefully…

Today, though, he departed the text. “Last time?”, I asked. “Last time!” he replied. Then, once we had done our “last time”, I could almost feel the strain of concentration, and he turned hopefully and asked, “Another last time?”

I wonder if I can use this concept for article deadlines?