I mentioned in yesterday’s post that kids don’t have any
concept of how much things cost. In many
ways, amusement parks use this to their advantage just as commercials on
television do. What can play to the
heart strings of a loving parent more than their sweet child asking, “Mommy/Daddy,
can I please have one of those?” The
question is what measures have parents taken to be prepared for such questions.
My wife had a brilliant idea a few months ago when our boys
continually were telling her that they wanted this thing or that thing that
they had seen advertised on TV or the internet.
She told them that they could each make up a list of the things that
they want. It has worked well in that
the boys continue to put things on their lists and they either forget about
what they have put there, or they emphasize their desire for the things on that
list. Hopefully, it’s encouraging a
sense of delayed gratification for them as well, helping them to realize that
they don’t get everything that they want and they certainly don’t get it right
away.
My wife and I have shared with our kids about our experience
at Disney World. They have been
interested and excited to hear about the different things that we experienced
and that they hope to experience some day.
Although we don’t know when we might take a trip there, the stories that
we tell them are generating an excitement and anticipation of the experience
that they one day hope to have.
I grew up the same way, never being able to get exactly what
I wanted when I wanted it but having to wait for it. The delayed gratification was helpful to me
later in life, it decreased the number of impulse purchases that I made and
helped me anticipate what I really wanted more.
Our society does its best to fool us into thinking that we can and
should have what we want now and wait to pay for it. Credit card debt is probably at a level that
our parents and grandparents could never even have imagined. We have been fooled into thinking that we can
have the things that we think we need now and delay our payment of it. If we pay things off in the allotted time,
that’s somewhat true, but if we don’t, we’ll pay a hefty price.
As I mentioned about our trip to Busch Gardens, the lines
weren’t incredibly long as it was late in the season, but we still had to
wait. Waiting for things seems to have a
benefit though. There’s the anticipation
that I mentioned, but there is also a time to determine whether the thing that
is being waited for is really worth the wait.
There are certain things that we might impulsively buy or do that had we
had the time we may not have purchased or done.
Waiting gives us the opportunity to really assess a situation and can
help us decipher the difference between a “want” and a “need.”
Waiting is helpful not only for buying things, but for doing
them as well. Waiting to get a tattoo
might mean that you choose not to spend the money and get one after all. Waiting to get married might save us from
making a wrong decision that could result in pain later on. Waiting to make a decision on something can
help us to accumulate wise counsel from people whom we trust before making the
decision. While not many of us really
like to wait, waiting has a lot of benefits.
One of the rides that my wife and boys went on last week was
a scary ride. They didn’t know that it
was scary until they were already on it, and by that time it was too late. I don’t think that my boys suffered any
irreparable harm in riding it, but it certainly taught us a lesson: get a
description before you ride. Some
amusement parks will give you a brochure with a brief description of the rides
and what to watch out for, we didn’t have anything like that at Busch Gardens,
but it sure would have been helpful.
Life is like that too.
Many times, we walk into things of which we have very little
description. There’s no rule book, no
description, and sometimes, no one that we know who’s been there before. Even if we find someone who has experienced a
similar situation, they are not us and we all face different experiences in
very different ways.
Proverbs 15:22 says, “Plans fail for lack
of counsel,
but with many advisers they succeed.”
There will always be situations that are new to us, but chances are,
someone, somewhere has been through similar situations before. When we surround ourselves with people who
are wise, we will be much better prepared for these kinds of situations. Of course, it’s not a foolproof approach, but
it can sure help to eliminate some of the unknown. Couple that with actually taking advantage of
waiting through our circumstances, we can learn a lot. Every experience is an opportunity to learn
and grow, will we take advantage of it or not.
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