As a parent, we all would have suffered from this 5 Minute syndrome, isn’t it? How many times our child would have told 5 minutes, but haven’t budged even an inch from his current activity, even after half an hour?
Have you ever wondered why every child does this? Or do you just treat this syndrome, as a part of growing up and ignored it thinking it will get better on its own?
When you choose to ignore this syndrome, then you would be finally reaching a stage, when you have to yell or shout at your child for the work to get done. This would set the precedent for the future as well. As otherwise, the child would keep postponing his work indefinitely, as he was caught in the 5-minute syndrome.
Instead of that, if we try a little to understand why all the children are plagued with this 5-minute syndrome, then it’s easy for you to manage and help your child with these transitions.
👉🏼Your child is not able to understand his priorities
👉🏼 The child’s frontal brain is still developing (which manages the priorities as well as transitions)
👉🏼 The child is enjoying the current activity so much that he doesn’t know how to put an end to it.
Then how do we teach our child, the importance of time and also the transitions? 🤔
❤ Bonding is the first key. Make him understand that we are part of his team and we are there to help him out
❤ The child understands the numbers better at this stage, that’s why he is telling 5 minutes. So use a timer to show that 5 minutes have passed already. Or otherwise, give him another number of tasks that he can complete certain tasks.
❤ Instead of giving him the directives, provide him with enticing choices for the next activity. Ex: If he has to go for a bath, ask him whether he would go for a shower bath, or sponge bath or bathe his favorite toy or something like that.
❤ Empower him by using different techniques like those mentioned above so that his decision-making powers would improve.
Also, remember that yelling or forcing the child to move from one activity to the other would only break the connection or the bond between you two.
This would make the child start doubting his own actions and would erase his self-confidence. He would start expecting that there should always be someone at his back to guide him in all the actions.
We as parents don’t want to do that right? We want to raise an independent child, who can make his own decisions isn’t it?
