Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Good things come to those who wait

Here's a really interesting article from The New Yorker about how important it is to teach our children to wait...and then reward them for their efforts. Sadly, I think I'm an eat-the-marshmallow kind of girl. My parents are going, "yep, you are, and this article explains a lot." You'll see what I'm talking about when you read the article. Whatever you do, don't think about eating marshmallows while you're reading it. You're already thinking about it aren't you?

3 comments:

MaryAnne said...

Interesting article...

Thanks for dropping by my blog :)

Deanna said...

Hey, interesting stuff!

Pam said...

So I've been thinking about this for a few days, and here's what I think: I definitely would've waited as a kid, but I'm not sure that's entirely a good thing. I might have waited so long that I ended up with a stale marshmallow no one ever got to enjoy. (In fact, that literally happened to me last year--I buy marshmallows around Passover time, when you can find them made with fish gelatin rather than pig gelatin, and I held onto one bag for so long, waiting for that perfect special occasion, that they got hard before anyone at them.) Even today I have trouble living in the moment, stopping planning long enough to enjoy what's going on right around me. My daughter Talia is the opposite, and I'm hoping she doesn't necessarily outgrow wanting to play with the new toy right this minute, or put on the fancy new outfit today. Not that delayed gratification is entirely bad either--just that your marshmallow-eating might be part of what makes you such a terrific mom who so clearly enjoys living in the moment with your kids. I've got lots to learn from you and Talia both!