I think children must come preprogrammed with the “Are we there yet” routine. My son is 2-and-a-half, and it started today. We drove to my mum’s place, about an hour and a half from home. For a while, he was happy to drive me nuts with “hungy.. hungy… hungy” commentary from the back seat. Then, after I gave in and handed over a Caramello Koala (never doing that again… what a mess!) he started in on “where are we… where are we… where are we…?” After amusing himself with repeating the (admittedly humorous) town name hundreds of times, he hit on the big one. “We there? We there? We there? We there?” 😐
I used to think I’d have a reasonable tolerance for this kind of thing. Now I know that just isn’t so. It’s like every single time kids say something, it’s fresh. They don’t get tired of saying the same thing over and over. So first up, I naively answer whatever question he poses. Then I listen to the question for a few dozen repetitions, without responding. Then I figure OK, maybe he’ll stop if I answer him again. Nope. Then I get cranky and ask him to stop… and ask again… and again. Finally I figure out some kind of distraction, and that works for a while… until he figures out the next thing to pester me with.
Hmmm… guess this isn’t gonna stop for a couple more decades, huh?