Delay Gratification
Emma always loved to go shopping with her mom. She always wanted to buy expensive things like clothes from Luluemon, Athleta, Alo, and more. Her mom often purchased whatever she wanted. “Mom, can I get this blue scuba from Lululemon?” Emma always asked her mom in this very sweet tone.
“Sweetie not right now because we should wait till there’s a sale so that you will feel the purchase was valuable.”
Emma was not cheery with her mom’s response and was in a gloomy mood for the rest of the day. This is the first time her mom had said no to her in a while, and this is only because the scuba was extremely expensive. Emma really really craved the scuba and wanted to have all of the trending clothing at school because she valued being cool and it makes her feel a lot better when she gets everything that she wants.
A couple of weeks later Emma asks her mom to go to the mall because she wants to get her scuba. “Mom, could we please go to the mall? I just want to go and look at different stores.”
“Emma, I know you want to go to the mall because you want to buy scuba from Lululemon. Can you check to see if there is a sale for me?”
“Fine mom. I’ll check later because I am doing homework right now.” Emma sorrowfully said. For the rest of the night Emma was in her room feeling very unhappy because her mom just won’t let her buy the scuba she wants.
The next day Emma goes to her mom and checks on her moms phone to see what the price of the scuba is. “Mom, the scuba is still full price, but if I go to the sale section it might be a reasonable price. I’m going to check there now.” Emma sighed. Emma doesn’t check the price for the next 2 hours.
3 months later Emma finds her mom to tell her something that will surprise her mom. “Mom, you know after fighting a really long battle with you to buy a scuba, I don’t want one anymore. This is because there are new styles that I like more, and I think that I wouldn’t have worn the scuba as much as I thought I would’ve.” In the process of her mom not letting her buy the scuba, she learned that she wouldn’t have liked it after a little while.
“WOW Emma! That was a big change. I’m glad we didn’t buy it if you didn’t like it within 3 months.” Emma’s mom said surprisingly. “Emma, did you know that you learned something that is a very important skill to have in life? This skill is called delay gratification. This is why you want to get something, but because it is full price you wait to see if you really want it for a few days, and then if you still want it, you can buy it.”
Later that night Emma had felt a lot better about herself, and was glad she didn’t buy the scuba. Because Emma had taught herself a very important lesson without her parents telling her, she got to buy whatever she wanted as a gift from her mom.