Counting the seconds while measuring temperature

I read in some old post that some were asked by their mom to count, usually up to 300, while the thermometer was inserted into the bottom (300 seconds = 5 minutes) to mark the necessary time. This intrigues me and I would like to know how many this happened to, whether it happened often or rarely and, above all, whether it was optional or even an obligation imposed by their mother.

Mom or gram never asked me to count. 🌡️

My mother used to sit next to me on the bed and count down from 180 to 0 when the 🌡️ was doing it’s job in my secret place.

Never had to count, just stay still until the thermometer were pulled out. After reading the result and mom told me stay here I knew that a suppository will be the next.

It's been a really long while, but I think mom had me count three minutes on my alarm clock! This must have been when I was old enough both for inserting the thermometer rectally myself and for measuring time. Previously mom counted time herself I suppose.

Why three minutes? I later read on one of the thermometers that it was "à la minute" so supposedly one minute was enough, but if you add imprecise readings on an analog clock and a safety margin I guess 3 minutes is safer! Perhaps that was how mom reasoned. It would be awkward for me to ask such questions now!

My Mom left it in for 5 minutes and timed it with a kitchen timer.

I remember my mother was sitting next to me on my bed and holded the thermometer inserted in my rectum. At the same time she was looking at my alarm clock until the thermometer had registered my temperature after five minutes.

Lee95, I posted the 300 -count rectal temps from my mother. It was a while back.

Usually it was my mum who took my temperature and it was always taken laying over her lap. She didn't count the seconds, but would keep an eye on her wrist watch to see when the five minutes had past. I also remember her caressing my back while taking my temperature as to comfort me (back then I hated rectal temps). That part of the procedure I always enjoyed.

Yeah that was funny, because I was the one who started counting. So as a 4-5yo I learned the numbers and how to count, but I didn't made it up to 300 at that age. This was reachable for me at an older age . I still know when I was 8 or 9 and I was left alone with the thermometer in my bum, I counted to 300 and shouted "300" to my mom then. Unfortunately she answered from the kitchen that I was counting too fast, there were some seconds left. Sometimes I could see tge timer working which was used regularly when my temperature was measured