This is another interesting gem I got from my current read, Influencer—dry toast reading, but some awesome factoids.

In last night’s reading the author spoke of a thirty-year study done with children ranging from four to five years old.  He put them in a room with a clock, a table, and on the table was a marshmallow.  He told the children that the marshmallow was theirs to eat, but if he came back in ten minutes and it was still there, they would be given another one.

As you would expect, most of the kids gobbled up the marshmallow as soon as they had a chance, and a few exercised delayed gratification. They waited for the ten minutes and received the second marshmallow.

The researchers then followed the few children who had exhibited that behavior and found that they excelled across the board in many of life’s endeavors, proving that delayed gratification is a very important life skill.

The kids who did not naturally have the trait were provided with adult modeling and they were able to learn it.  The key was that they learned a distracting behavior which helped them wait the allotted time.  It’s a skill that can be learned, and, as a parent, I find that huge.

The importance of exercising delayed gratification in all facets of your life is also huge.  In fact, I have written about its financial impact in ONO.  If you’d like, I’ll go into that aspect and others in future blogs, but for now let me say that I have been active in trying to model this type of behavior in front of my son.  I’ve also tried to help him to delay gratification when it’s appropriate so that he can see the benefit of doing so.

In fact, just today my four-year-old son got his allowance. (Giving him an allowance is one of the ways we are teaching him to manage money.)  Jaken wanted to go to the store to get a new Lego ship. I told him that his three dollars was only enough for a small ship, but if he saved it till next week, he would have enough for a larger one.  I suggested as an alternative that if he would like to go to our favorite thrift store and pick out one of the small toys that comes free with any purchase, he could get that instead (good workable distraction).  Jaken happily went along and I told him that I was proud of his choice to save his money.  We left the thrift store with some additional ten cent books we got as a bonus (great workable distraction) from the free-with-purchase bin.

Teaching your children delayed gratification is critical, not only through words, but also by modeling it yourself.  It will serve them in many ways.  The study did say a key age to teach this skill is four to five.  I started with Jaken when he was three and kept it very basic and simple.  I hope this got you thinking.  If you know a parent who would find this information valuable, please pass it along.