Everyone says time passes a lot faster as you get older, but does it?
I can’t remember how quickly time passed when I was a kid. If it passed slower back then, was it because I was less busy? I always seemed busy. Time does seem to pass rather quickly today if I am busy or not, so maybe they are right. But, why?
I heard this bloke on the radio some time back who had a theory. Basically, he was saying that time passed much more slowly when you were a child because you lived in the moment. Whereas as an adult will plan days, weeks, months and often years ahead and so ‘the moment’ is shorter, I suppose that this makes sense.
When I am on holiday the days go slow but the whole holiday seems to pass quickly. Television has to be part of the problem, surely? When I was a kid on the farm I played outside all day. This usually ended up with me rescuing an imaginary girlfriend from the Indians, they always tied her to the same tree so I didn’t need Poirot to find her. Freud would love that one wouldn’t he?
The ideas for these games all came from books, in my family you read every night or you were read to. On the day the television arrived I was called in to watch, after about five minutes the novelty wore off and I was back outside. Skip six years and I was hooked, Man From Uncle, Laramie, The Last of the Mohicans, Champion the Wonder horse, Flicka and the list goes on. Your day became less of a day and more of a space in time you had to get through until your favourite TV programme came on.
I just hope it all slows down again when I retire, maybe I’ll buy a tricycle and tie Mrs Countryboy to a tree 
I heard a theory from a science guy that it’s because when you’re a kid you have more milestones, more reasons to make memories, whereas now we’re older a lot of our days are the same and we don’t have nearly so many milestones – we can already talk, read, ride bikes, make friends, know our old ones, see things for the first time etc etc.
Either way, time passes so quickly for me these days.
Television certainly does speed up the day.
Thanks Jess that makes a lot of sense, that would be why days seem longer on holiday all that new stuff
I’ve nominated you for an award
http://mittenskittens.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/when-the-moon-hits-your-eye-like-a-big-blogging-award/
You are a star, thankyou Jess,I’ll take a look when I back.
I remember distances being much greater when I was a kid. The walk from my grandparents place to the bus stop on Muirhead Avenue (Liverpool) took ages when I was 6. I walked it when I was in my 30s and was surprised how short it was.
Thats the truth, the same thing happened when I went back to the farm after 30 years the lane seemed so much shorter, thanks.
Your legs grew longer, that’s all…
AV
Yes those adult requirements sure speed up the months. The utility bill, the house note, insurance all seem to make the mailbox a sort of clock of monthly time. Just as fast as you pay it, an new envelope arrives.
Haha the good old ‘facilitation of life’ gets in the way of everything
The passing of time is perceived differently depending on age. One year for a 10 year old = 1/10th of his life (or 1/8th if you ignore the first two years of development). One year for a 50 year old = 1/50th of his lifetime, so the perception of a year is compressed as one ages. At least that’s my take on it.
Thanks Bunk that’s interesting, it makes a bit more sense if it all
Doesn’t make sense to me. As children we spend lots of time sleeping and being compelled to nap after seemingly every meal and spurt of exertion. I would have thought time went faster then, because there’d simply be so much to absorb when we were NOT asleep! As blurry-eyed, insomniac, caffeine-veined, blaze, bored, beentheredonethat adults, on the other hand, time should go much slower and stretch on endlessly… And yet it’s not the case!
Thanks Ciggie, now I feel even worse ha. How’s the new Beau coming along?
Shut Up.
“As children we spend lots of time sleeping.” I don’t believe that there are children posting here, but it doesn’t matter. No one ever compelled me to nap except for me.
Differentiating between fast-growing children and professional sleepers like teenagers still doesn’t explain it.
Just don’t leave it till you have Alzheimers and forget which tree you tied her to. I just lay on my mum’s back porch today and looked at the sky and smelled the blossoms…I remembered what I liked about life, just then.
Oh wow yeah You just reminded me laying in the long grass watching the clouds float by. Thankyou
Hey Charlie, congrats on your nomination! You rock dude.
cheers
Yeah, thanks Phillip I’l have a spring in my step at work lol.
Hey Charlie. Thanks for your visit. Now I am asking for advanced tickets to your post of when you “buy a tricycle and tie Mrs Countryboy to a tree”. This one I have got to see ! Have a great weekend Charlie. Ralph
Thanks Ralph I’ll put you in the book ha.
Tie the wife to a tree? This conversation took an odd twist. Have a good weekend Charlie
Nap time for me. Gotta compress some time for the rest of you.
And you’re welcome.
This is why I avoid therapy
thanks for calling by
This one made me laugh, Charlie. Time seems to go impossibly fast for us. I wonder when it will slow down….
I’ve always been led to believe it slows down when you get older but my brother-law is 77 and he says he dosen’t know where the time goes? There again he is a farmer
I think the idea that children live in the moment is so true. I wonder if any adult can possibly just live in the moment. I’m a time management freak so every hour and minute has to count – crazy!
Thanks Pandora it must have something to do with planning ahead. When I was a kid on the farm I never planned tomorrow in fact I didn’t even plan an hour ahead
to a one year old a month is one twelfth of a lifetime and to a fifty year old a month is one 600th of a lifetime so a fifty year old may very well perceive time differently than a one year old
I like that I one, its a great theory. Thanks
Love your writing Charlie! Read a few tales and I will be back. That tree… I remember that tree! We played hide and seek with that tree, and it was always a great hiding place, even though it was in the middle of the neighborhood.
Thankyou Patricia, I appreciate that. Funny how, as kids, we think if we can’t see them they can’t see us.
It just seems a few weeks ago that I was complaining about all the Xmassy music, and now they’re playing it again…. Damn, that was a quick one!
AV
Don’t it just fly. I watched the 1st Bourne film last week, again! The computers looked like antiques this was about 12years ago?
Regarding the phenomenon we’ve all experienced, Einstein said it best: “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours — that’s relativity.”
That is a great way to put it and so true. This Einstein geezer was he clever?
Thanks for reading