I am supposed to be allowed to spoil my grandchild. It is a time-honored privilege that I have been denied.
I went on a walk with the granddaughter and ended up at the coffeeshop, where I had promised to buy her a cookie. She picked one out — chocolate chip, of course — and we sat down, and she said, “I have to athk my mom if I can have a treat.” And she didn’t eat it! We had to bag it up and bring it home, where her mom did say she could have it.
It’s the Marshmallow Test on steroids! I am totally foiled in my cunning plan to totally spoil the child before she goes home.
Also, what a weird kid. I’m beginning to question my grandpaternity.
Don’t accept cookies from strange grandfathers is a good lesson….
That shows good impulse control, though the marshmallow test targeted short term vs long term thinking and delayed gratification for a larger reward later right? It would be like her getting two cookies instead of one if she waits for mom’s input. Good self-discipline though.
That test was less about impulse control and more about how much a kid was willing to believe an adult who told them that if they turned up the chance at a reward right now, they could get a better reward in the future. In other words, ti was really a test of how much they believed the promise of an adult.
PZ, were you strict with treats when Skatje was a little kid? Just curious.
Actually more powerful reasoning than the marshmallow test.
If I eat this now mom will know, and I will never get a cookie again.
Aditional insight may have included “if I do this right grand pa will always get me cookies”.
The last post kinda contradicts this one. :)
(Happy doting, PZ!)
Does anyone but me remember Colbert interviewing one of the ‘marshmallow test’ guys. There was the usual introduction and getting the guest seated, then the fellow turned to Colbert and started to explain the test and put down a marshmallow on the desk which was promptly consumed by Colbert before he could get more than a couple of words out.
Maybe she wanted to check off “feed spiders” from her checklist first, and felt she needed mom’s permission to get a treat for herself before finishing the checklist.
I suppose she has lost at least one primary tooth?
has she unionized the spiders yet?
Well, several of my grandkids are Grandma-proof. Severe food allergies run in the family.
Several of them have to be gluten-free. One family is vegan.
My two sweet little girls and their mother have MCAS (mast cell activation syndrome).
They react badly to many things. One of them is even allergic to meat. Luckily, she can tolerate fish,
so the entire family is pescetarian.
I love to cook and bake, but I’m afraid to feed my grandchildren. I don’t want to make them sick.