I Didn't Have Time

R.a.n.t. of week 10/28/12

I think I've spent enough time in the past few weeks ranting about things I directly have control over. This time, however, I've decided to go on about something I have less control of. As a parent, there comes a time when you have to assign duties or chores to your children. These chores can involve washing the dishes, sweeping the floor, putting the thyme away I accidentally left on the kitchen counter, I think you get the idea. What I hear time and time again when I check to see if the duties are done is....... You guessed it, "I didn't have time". (Okay, I'm done throwing in a 'time' reference for each sentence, well after this one). What annoys me the most about this statement is how inaccurate it really is. What our kids really mean is, "I mismanaged my time". The other day my oldest used this line to explain why his chore wasn't done. It was a reason he gave the second after he paused a youtube video he was watching. I inquired about the video and his response was he "just sat down".

It almost makes me wonder what the inspiration is for all the film and TV shows about time travel. No one is really interested in seeing the past or future, they just want to sit and watch TV all day and still have time to go to work. I half expect when Doctor Who goes off the air, the final episode will be him returning home just as his wife gets back from the grocery store asking if he found time to clean the leaves out of the gutter. To which the Doctor will reply he "didn't have time".