Particularly under-slept ones… I am learning a lot about this at the moment, as I’m trying to help my kids out, with a 1 and a three-year-old – neither of whom are sleeping as they should, let alone through. I understand the biological need to have kids young, while you can still function on minimal sleep. Of course, when the kids wake during the night, only mum or dad will do (I sleep very lightly so I’m awake anyway), but I’ve been trying fill in in the early morning when I am acceptable, and Barbs and I are doing what we can in the daytime. I am proud of the way the kids are coping. Not sure I could have done as well.
This has been a valuable lesson in reminding me of the fact logic and longer-term thinking are not well-developed strengths in three-year-olds. (Yes, he appears quite fond of me – they both do). My Grandson keeps asking for explanations… I’ve also been realizing two other things — a lot of supposedly adult people are still at that stage, not thinking much, unable to see anything from the point of view of anyone else, short-term gratification being as far as they CAN think, and tantrums when they don’t get their way. Some people really are still three in their thinking, and they vote and drive.
Secondly: the more tired I get, the worse my writing is… but in an odd direction. I’m trying to write an accessible book for 12-year-olds. I think I did that reasonably well in STORM-DRAGON and for slightly older kids with CHANGELING’S ISLAND and CUTTLEFISH and THE STEAM MOLE. When I am this tired, I don’t. My language usage gets more complex, my sentences become longer and more involuted. I’m also struggling to think several scenes ahead as to what actions/speech in this one will knock on to the next, with various possibilities – something I didn’t realize I did all the time.
So: not much of a post. Just a bit of significant respect to the authors who have produced books with young kids on the loose in their lives. We love them, but they do take a lot more than defensive memory lets us remember. And… to those who started and struggled during that period, when the kids are a bit older, try again. You’ll also have that ability to explain honed.
Mad Genius Club 
4 responses to “The logic of 3-year-olds”
“Why?” “Why?” “Why?”
Drove me up the wall, until it was pointed out that it was baby speak for “That was interesting tell me more cool stuff” and that I could talk about almost anything.
We shunted it to “ask a better question.”
When eventually we have one where that doesn’t work, I will switch to lectures. 😀
With a lack of sleep, your brain goes on autopilot. That’s what the complex writing is. Your default setting. Takes active effort to overcome it. Happens a lot to me when I am low on sleep. I put it down on paper anyway, and rewrite it the next day. For some reason, for me, it takes less time to write it badly and then rewrite it than to wait until I am rested and get it right the first time. (That may be the definition of a professional writer. You write even when you are not in the mood to write.)
We used to have a saying when I was doing a lot of technical writing when there were deadline pressures. “I am sorry it is so long. I didn’t have time to make it short.”
“I am sorry to have written such a long letter; I had not the time to write it shorter.”