Thought of the Day 03.17.10

We recently ordered pizza, and when it arrived, I let the boys select which slice they wanted. Well you would have thought I’d set before them the greatest problem Solomon ever saw. They were considering how many pieces of pepperoni were on each slice, how large the slice was, and what sort of cheese to sauce ratio could be inferred from the surface of it. All this at ages 3 and 5, mind you.

Oddly, by giving them such freedom, I actually made them miserable. Being so aware of what any choice would cost in forsaken alternatives meant they almost couldn’t enjoy the one they would eventually have to settle for. Of course, if I had merely picked a slice for each of them they would have been perfectly happy with that.

Unfortunately, my kids aren’t exactly alone. Whenever I’m picking which movie to watch or which phone to buy or which car to drive, I sort of go through the same basic motions. Part of the burden of having so many options is the difficulty in excluding any of them, but the other part of the burden is that in wasting so much time maximizing any one decision, I’m actually costing myself the chance to even make other ones.