Backlog of unexamined patent applications

Okay kiddo, so imagine you have a lot of toys to play with, but you can only play with one toy at a time. This means some toys might have to wait for you to finish playing with another toy before you can play with them.

Now, let's say that the toys are like patent applications, and the people who examine the patent applications are like your parents who watch over you while you play. Just like how you can only play with one toy at a time, the people who examine patent applications can only examine one application at a time.

But, there are a lot of patent applications that need to be examined, just like how there are a lot of toys you want to play with. When there are more applications than examiners, it creates a "backlog" of unexamined patent applications, which means some applications might have to wait a longer time before they can be examined.

Basically, there are too many toys for your parents to watch over all at once, just like there are too many patent applications for examiners to examine all at once. So, some patents might have to wait in line for their turn to be examined.