The hourglass is half full, or is it half empty?

After finishing up a rather uneventful dinner last night Declan asked if he had time to play on his laptop before bedtime. It tends to make cleanup a little easier after dinner if Declan has some sort of a distraction, so I agreed to 15 minutes.

"Fifteen minutes! Yay!" he chirped excitedly, the exact opposite of the response I was expecting from him.

He must have noticed the quizzical frowning of my brow in response to his jubilation, because he quickly tempered his excitement and said, "Fifteen minutes is a long time, right?"

"Well...maybe not as long as you think it is," I replied.

He paused for a moment, obviously processing the scenario and then said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Fifteen pieces of candy is a lot of candy. Fifteen cars are a lot of cars," looking up at me with shrugged shoulders, certain his logic was solid.

"Yes, 15 is a lot candy and I have 15 dishes yet to do, so go before your time runs out," I replied.

His priorities quickly shifted back into normal alignment and he raced off to enjoy his game.

Of course, 14 minutes later, he had a completely different opinion of whether or not he had been given ample time for games before bedtime.