to eat or not to eat

I can’t help but smile every time I watch this video. If you were placed in a room with a marshmallow (or a chocolate cake, or a margarita…whatever tickles your taste buds!) and promised that you would receive a second one if you didn’t give in to temptation, do you think you would wait? The reactions and restraint that these children display are priceless. While it seems like a cruel trick to tempt these tots with treats, it is too cute not to watch.


Temptation is a funny thing when it’s placed in front of you in the form of a treat. As much as I know I don’t need it, I have a hard time not wanting seconds when it comes to dessert. After getting over the cute factor and looking into the video with a little more logic, there are too many variables that wouldn’t have occurred to me at such a young age and it makes me question what choice I would now make. I’d like to ignore the fact that wanting two of something when you already have one is greedy but I can’t push that from my mind. And I don’t really think these children are being greedy – who wouldn’t want seconds as a child? But I now know better than to need more than what I’ve been fortunate enough to have received in the first place. And with an unfortunate understanding of sugar’s lack of nutrition, I think I would be more proud of myself if I only went for one tasty treat as opposed to toughing it out and treating my tummy to two. Politely declining the second helping no matter how bad I want it would now take more self control than staring that marshmallow in the face for several minutes in the hopes of its multiplication.

All logic aside, I love this test. I love the way these children take it so seriously, knowing what reward they will receive. I think I could be patient if performing this test at my current age, but twenty years ago? I wonder how long I would have suffered. At what point do you say, I’ve waited long enough and I’m eating that marshmallow? When does the torture of staring at a sweet become too much that the prospect of having two just doesn’t seem worth it anymore? I am more than impressed by the patience that these cuties demonstrate, and their clever ways of avoiding that appealing marshmallow, and I can only hope that my self restraint would have been just as good as theirs.

Would you give in? What temptations are too good to give up?