The Attention Span of a Goldfish

My son chides me for my short-term memory loss. We joke about it - better than complaining, yes? - but I need to do something before it gets too far out of hand. I was thinking perhaps doing some memorization exercises might help, and I'd like some suggestions. Looking for a few short, sweet, and perhaps rhyming poems to memorize, preferably lore themed or having mystical qualities -- anything short of actual spellwork would be nice. Anyone have a few favorites to recommend?

Sometimes a short memory span is stress controlled
Your mind is becoming selective in its memories
It is forgetting only what you choose to forget
Mine has been like that for many years

I work with hi tech machines on a daily basis
Any loss of job skills will be heavily dealt with
Yet I need reminding when I have a holiday booked
I am not sure what days of the week I work what shift
Yet I remember how to resolve an issue that last happened many years ago

The mind has its own defence mechanism
It will protect you in its own way

*deep breath of satisfaction* Wow. Thank you, hermit. Once again I am reminded that some things I perceive as flaws (usually because someone else has insisted they are) really aren't. Can't tell you how many times I've struggled with some aspect of who or what I am, only to figure out (eventually) that it is something to be accepted, if not embraced.

Much gratitude to you for being the bearer of a timely message!

Hello



WOW that sounds like me middle Son. I have come to find he "remembers" just fine its just information he feels he does not need and dumps it lol.



Too much of hearing Mom say in this ear and out that ear child when they so try to tell you the same "he did this to me or she did this to me" story. Maybe we as parents from an early age set up that pattern of selective hearing ?

Is it memory loss or just dumped information. I know that the school so tries to pin that one down with all three of me kids. One is said to "parot" informaiton to remember it so says the same over and over again at random times of the day. The other two seem to simply travel out and hear what they feel is directed at them. I am forever getting they are NOT showing us their FULL POTENTIAL its not that they are simply taking in I feel what will serve them in life and dumping the rest.

Red light mean's stop.....but NOT to all people it seems.



Lynn

Well, I think there's a fairly large difference between a person my age struggling (perhaps unnecessarily) with short-term memory loss and children who cannot remember their lessons or to do what they've been tasked with. I don't have too much trouble remembering the more important things; I'm still quite able to learn new things and - for the most part - think clearly and focus on what I'm doing.

As for kids, my youngest (who is grown now) simply was not interested in anything that didn't fully entertain him. Talk about not living up to his full potential. Yikes he was such a handful. Now he's in a management position where he works, and he's doing just fine, both in his work and as a family man. Part of the issue with him when his teachers (and I) were fussing about his 'potential' was that he could not relate to the teaching methods in public school. Work with him one-on-one, and he was plenty smart. He just needed to have his full attention engaged, and that just wasn't going to happen in a room full of kids.

Seems to me the biggest problems children have in school are often directly related to the setting -- and an inability or unwillingness to conform, which ... I don't know ... makes it hard for them in public schools but might ultimately be the basis for their finer traits as adults.