Back in November we decided to give Asher the marshmallow test.
If you aren't familiar with the marshmallow test - here's a brief history. Back in 1972 a psychologist at Stanford decided to put individual kids (ages 4 to 6) in a room and offer them a marshmallow. BUT he would tell them that if they could wait 15 minutes, they could have TWO marshmallows. And then he would leave. And they would be alone. In the room. With a marshmallow. I think he really just wanted to mess with the kids. But fast forward - turns out that the ability of the kids to wait and get 2 marshmallows correlated with some pretty significant outcomes - SAT scores, career success, marriage success, becoming President. okay okay, I might be overselling it, but you get the point.
Anyway, we decided it would be fun to lock Asher in a room with a marshmallow and see what happened. If he failed the test, then we would just give up on him and focus all our love and attention on Kiera. If he passed, then he's going to be successful anyway and we will just focus all our love and attention on Kiera. Well, until she is old enough to take the marshmallow test and then we figure our job as parents is done.
So - the good news. He passed. whew. (Although technically the test conditions weren't quite the same since there are supposed to be no distractions and we conducted the test in the playroom. Eh. Whatever, close enough).
The highlights:
·
As soon as we told him the rules of the test he
started negotiating, “and if I do a really
good job I get three marshmallows!” - This is just so representative of his personality.
· Once he heard the rules, he demanded to eat his dinner first, which I thought showed pretty good foresight on his part.
·
Over dinner we had to clarify that the test hadn’t
started yet, and he had to be alone in the same room as the marshmallow for it
to start, to which he replied “I don’t want to be alone in the room with the
marshmallow because then I will want to eat it!” Yup. Smart kid.
·
Ultimately he used two different strategies to succeed 1) distracting himself
– he played on the sit-and-spin and he put out wet wipes as a “bug catcher” 2) ignoring
the marshmallows – he kept trying to leave the room, and then he finally hid the
marshmallow under a piece of paper.
We videotaped it. And then, when Hela was here a couple weeks later. Because really, locking a kid in a room with a marshmallow and watching him struggle is really kinda fun.
(I don't have our videotape downloaded, but if you are interested - there are some hilarious videos on youtube. Here's a good video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0yhHKWUa0g)
As you can see from the photos below, Kiera did not pass the marshmallow test. But it's okay, it turns out she doesn't like marshmallows anyway so she wouldn't even want a second one.
One last funny thing - it had been so long since we've had big marshmallows, Asher was amazed they came in that size. He only remembered the small ones.
We videotaped it. And then, when Hela was here a couple weeks later. Because really, locking a kid in a room with a marshmallow and watching him struggle is really kinda fun.
(I don't have our videotape downloaded, but if you are interested - there are some hilarious videos on youtube. Here's a good video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0yhHKWUa0g)
As you can see from the photos below, Kiera did not pass the marshmallow test. But it's okay, it turns out she doesn't like marshmallows anyway so she wouldn't even want a second one.
 |
| " I'm a Daddy that loves to torture babies. Nanny nanny boo boo Who's a cry baby." |
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| "Ha! Success! Screaming always works eventually!" |
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| "Bleh. This is disgusting. I do NOT get what Asher was going on about!" |
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| "Aaaaaa But they are fun to scrunch!! As soon as I finish this, I am totally going to wipe my hands all over Mommy!" |
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| Extra bonus, Asher got to toast his marshmallows. |
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| Yum. Ah the taste of sweet success! |
One last funny thing - it had been so long since we've had big marshmallows, Asher was amazed they came in that size. He only remembered the small ones.
