Never Underestimate the Willpower of A 6-Year-Old
*I’m going to have to give a disclaimer on this one. As I fact checked with my family, no two people could corroborate the origin story of the “great candy resistance of 1998.” This is my version of this true story, detailing exactly what happened… at least as far as I remember it.
When I was eight years old, my brother, Eric, and I caught wind of some competitive challenges my parents were doing together. If they went a year without sugar, they were going to give themselves an incentive. I don’t recall exactly what their incentive was, but I do remember it was something good. The competition between our parents sparked our curiosity.
I still remember the conversation as though it was yesterday. We were sitting on the low-pile, blue carpet of my grandparents’ dining room floor in their condo at the Village III retirement community. It smelled like old food storage and bran flakes, and felt like bone-deep belonging. My dad had his back to their double sliding glass doors, sitting on a chair, wrangling one of the younger kids.
“Dad, what would you give us if we went a year without candy?” we asked slyly. Going a year without candy would certainly prove challenging, but not as challenging as giving sugar up altogether. A kid has to know their limits, after all!
“A year without candy…” he puzzled as he scratched his chin. “I’d give you a hundred bucks!”
We both accepted the challenge with big eyes and hearts bursting at the prospect of seizing such a fortune.
Our middle sister, Holly, had been listening from the sidelines. After hearing the deal Eric and I had just struck, she piped up and asked, “What would you give me if I went 10 years without candy?”
She was six years old at the time. Six. Her favorite candy was M&Ms, the same as mine when I was six. She couldn’t possibly be serious.
Dad kind of shrugged and said incredulously, “Ten years? I’d give you a horse!”
A horse. A HORSE. I’m sure he said it because he thought it could never be done. Not by a six year old. Not 10 years without one of the highest value social currencies of childhood. It was laughable.
But, a horse…
Holly couldn’t have been offered a more tantalizing prize. She would have done ANYTHING in the world for a horse.
“Are you serious?” she queried. She, for one, was dead serious.
“Sure!” Dad laughed. “You go 10 years without a single piece of candy, and I’ll buy you a horse,” he chuckled.
fast forward what felt like a lifetime…
A year ticked slowly by. My brother and I each had one or two slip ups, but we genuinely tried! We said no to every treat, every bribe, every whisper from our friends of “your parents aren’t even here! Just eat it. They’ll never know…”
It had been a long year. It felt like eternity. Being a kid, it felt like the world around me bled candy from every angle. It felt like I couldn’t let my guard down for one minute.
As I mentioned before, we weren’t abstaining from ALL sugar. We weren’t that crazy. We had rules.
Anything with “candy” on the label was off limits. No sugar gum, but sugar free was fine. We would eat chocolate chip cookies, but not the kind from the grocery store that had M&Ms on the top - the kind every mom brought in for class parties at school. Ice cream was okay, but without candy chunks in it. Cotton candy was a no, but marshmallows were okay. Any time we came up against a grey area, we made sure to double check with a parent, just to be safe.
The only time I remember slipping up was on New Year’s Eve. I’d made it through Halloween, Thanksgiving and even Christmas, for crying out loud. Those holidays were obviously candy traps. New Year’s tricked me. I let my guard down at just the wrong moment. When my grandpa handed out sticks of licorice, I took one like everyone else. I was 3/4 of the way through it when it hit me. Oh NO!
Thankfully, my parents were merciful. They forgave the trespass and all was well.
Finally, my day came! My parents woke me up right before midnight and we counted down to the one year mark. Three… Two… One… Midnight!
They handed me a king-sized package of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and an envelope with a crisp, $100 bill.
I’d never felt so alive!!
I quickly spent $20 on a pretend make up set (which I instantly regretted… Why oh why did my pocket burn so!?) I spent the rest on a kitten and the accompanying supplies. Her name was Sassy. She became my best friend and, as she lived up to her name, my mom’s nightmare.
My sister, meanwhile, watched my moment of glory come and go and she continued on her determined path.
Fast forward nine more “lifetimes” in kid years…
Holly. What a champion. From what I can recall, she never slipped up. Ever.
She went ten ACTUAL years without a single bite of candy. After a while, she didn’t even remember what it tasted like. She would just wave her hand when people offered her candy and say, “no, thanks,” like it didn’t even sting.
When her time came, she was 16, and I couldn’t possibly have been more proud of her.
I was living in Arizona, going to college, so I missed her big day. It’s one of the bigger regrets of my life.
The day of her 10 year mark, my parents set up a horseback ride. While Holly was out riding, they sneaked a white, convertible Mustang behind the horse trailer with a big bow on it. When she got back and saw what was waiting for her, she couldn’t believe it! Her very own car!
They leased the mustang for a few years, and opened up a bank account with $1,000 in it - $100 for every year she’d gone without candy.
Key Takeaways
Abstaining from candy is an innocent enough challenge, but there were several key takeaways that have been genuinely life changing.
Saying no to something you’re tempted by is hard, but it does get easier with time. I learned how important it was to decide ahead of time - to picture situations in which I would be tempted or pressured into quitting or cheating and practice saying “no, thank you.”
I learned that the more you say no, the easier it gets, and the less people try to derail you. Peer pressure is one tough cookie to get through. But again, the more you choose to stand up for yourself and what you’re trying to accomplish, the easier it gets. Eventually, they begin to see that you’re serious and even check in and cheer you on the closer you get to the finish line. I can’t begin to express the number of situations that practice in not succumbing to peer pressure has helped me over the years.
Choosing a lifestyle, and sticking with it come hardship or highwater, builds grit.
Determination isn’t just about stubbornly persisting. Determination is all about having a goal, and keeping your gaze focused on that goal - not letting time, fatigue, or input from others derail that focus.
After finishing my year long candy challenge, I knew I could do hard things. I got to choose my own hard thing to get through, and that built grit and resilience for some of the hard things I didn’t get to choose, but have had to go through.
Having repeated opportunities to say no to something I wanted in the moment in favor of something I wanted in the future helped me learn the value of delayed gratification. I’m sure I don’t have to spell out the many, many applications this has outside of choosing not to eat candy. This was a life skill that helped me all throughout my tween, teen and young adult years and has helped me build a life I love.
The self mastery I developed as a kid from going a year without candy continues to reap dividends. My own son and daughter have both gone a full year without candy and I’m so proud of them! It has been so neat to watch the ways they’ve learned and grown. I highly recommend it to any one of any age who feels the drive and wants to try it out.
