4-Year-Old Told To Wait 'One Minute'—No One Prepared for What He Does Next

Newsweek

a day ago

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A mother was left in fits of laughter after her young son gave a literal—and brilliantly tech-savvy—response to a phrase that parents everywhere have uttered countless times: "one minute."
The moment, captured in a now-viral Instagram video posted by Zohra M. Khorashi (@thatlawyermomlife), has taken the internet by storm with over 54.6 million views and counting.
The clip features Khorashi preparing food in her kitchen when her young son calls out from behind the camera asking for juice. Without missing a beat, Khorashi replies, "one minute." But, instead of waiting patiently or repeating his request, the boy calmly turns to Alexa and says, "Alexa, please put the timer on for one minute." Khorashi, caught completely off guard, bursts into laughter.
The video, which has earned more than 2.4 million likes and thousands of comments, struck a chord with parents familiar with the common habit of loosely tossing around short time frames—"just a sec," "two minutes," "one minute"—that often turn into much longer waits. Viewers praised the child's wit and timing, with many remarking on how accurately he called out a parental tendency.
From left: Khorashi looks at the bowl in the kitchen; and laughs.
From left: Khorashi looks at the bowl in the kitchen; and laughs.
Instagram/@thatlawyermomlife
"The fact the kid wasted no time. So smart!" said one user, and another wrote: "Told my daughter last night 'we leave for the movies in 30 mins.' Her: 'ok mom, hey Siri set my timer for 30 minutes.'"
Expert Insight: What Should Parents Say Instead?
To explore what is really going on in such moments, Newsweek reached out to parenting expert Ana Aznar, a Madrid-born child psychologist and founder of REC Parenting, an online platform supporting parents and caregivers.
"When kids are little, it does not matter what we say in these situations because they do not have a concept of time," Aznar said. "However, as soon as they understand time, if we tell kids to give us two minutes, they will give us two minutes because they do not yet understand that we use that phrase very loosely."
Aznar added that unmet expectations can easily frustrate children. "If we tell them to give us two minutes, they expect us to be done in two minutes. And if we are not done, they will get frustrated and annoyed with us."
To prevent misunderstandings, Aznar recommended more concrete or transparent communication.
"It is much better to give them a precise time frame, e.g., 'Give me 30 minutes'; 'I will be done when the hand of that clock reaches 3'," Aznar said. "Or if we do not want to give them a time frame, we can tell them to go and play and, as soon as we are done, we will go and get them. In this case, the mum could have also told the child to help her cook and that she will give her the juice once they finish."
Newsweek is waiting for @thatlawyermomlife to provide a comment.
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