As a kid, I was always aware of exactly what time of year it was, exactly how many days to Easter/Christmas/Halloween/summer vacation, etc.
As an adult, these things sneak up on me. I think it’s because I’m not surrounded by it. I’m not doing hand-outline turkeys or cutting out paper snowflakes or writing about what I did for summer vacation. Instead, every work day is pretty much like every other work day.
I need kindergarten.
Do parents of young children feel more connected to the passage of time?
Not only in the working world is one day much like the rest, even when there are cycles to it, but time starts going by so damned fast. I am driving to work with drizzly skies and bare trees, and I can’t remember for a moment if it’s autumn or spring.
I think I did (notice time passing). There were more milestones, and those stick with you. Baby’s first smile, first words, first teeth, crawling, walking, potty-training, all those developmental things that, in retrospect, went by quickly, but they stick with you.
I remember my years with kids at home more than I do my 40’s and 50’s, which now seem like a blur of work, moving, etc.
I’m noticing time again, because of all the stuff that comes with aging.
Since finishing college, I have noticed a distinct change in my ability to keep track of the time of year. I blame the lack of semesters. Just this morning I could barely believe it was near the end of June. I mean, what happened to April?
I don’t have kids and my friends don’t have kids either. Now I can manage to figure out the approximate dates of the big school holidays (Christmas, Easter and Summer) but half-terms kill me. I end up travelling around the city wondering where all the people went or if I’m going somewhere on a Sunday by mistake.
Try working in retail to really get your sense of time screwed up. Next week we’ll be setting up back-to-school, and a few weeks after that, Halloween candy will begin to arrive. :rolleyes:
I have this bad tendency to forget that dates mean the same things as “the second week in June” or whatever.
For the first time in two years I’m having summer vacation, so I’m having some adult kindergarten feeling. I still have to go to work tomorrow, but it’s crazy that I’ve had nothing I’ve had to go do the last two days.
Pfft. Try magazine publishing – we’re mopping up September and starting October. Plus I’m currently working on the master schedule for 2008, so have already had my first incident of signing something and using the wrong year on the date. That doesn’t usually kick in till August some time, and from then till the end of the year, I will have to stop.and.think. about what year it currently is every time I date something.
I know that it sounds odd, but this is one of the reasons I’ve taken up more gardening–in order to really notice what the heck is going on as the days roll by.
Still, I don’t feel as anchored as I was as a kid.
Even with a young child in school, I still don’t feel the passage of time as acutely as I did when I was in school. For example, I have some vacation time to use up by 6/30 (first of all, who ever expected I’d have a problem doing THAT!) and I was going to take it next week. But, because it might be a busy week for us and because I found a basketball camp for my son to do while waiting for his main camp to start, I am working 20 hours next week. It’s still cutting it close so I assured myself that I would take a full day later in the month. About two hours later I realized, there IS not “later in the month” after next week! And not only do I have a kid in school but I work in a college. Years ago, I would know there’s this much of June left, but that gives me all of July and all of August left till school and whether or not it’s going to be a lucky year with a late Labor Day or an unlucky one with an early Labor Day.
