Perseverance…with a capital P

I made a major mistake with this child back when she was 5. She wanted a dog.

Bad.

I mean really bad.

I told her when she was 10 we would get a dog because let’s be honest…I was going to be the one to tend to it. She campaigned for a dog for an entire year.

Around a year into it, into the constant questions about dogs, books about dogs, discussions about dogs, I broke. When she was 6, we got a dog.

Lesson she learned, I work at them hard enough and long enough I will get what I want.

PJ=Perseverance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perseverance = noun
in a competitive environment, perseverance is an invaluable asset: persistence, tenacity, determination, staying power, indefatigability, steadfastness, purposefulness; patience, endurance, application, diligence, dedication, commitment, doggedness, assiduity, tirelessness, stamina; intransigence, obstinacy; informal stick-to-it-iveness; formal pertinacity.

This form of stick-to-it-iveness she has surrounds her, embodies her and ALWAYS has.

From the days when she could hardly talk she would make her needs/wants/desires known and then throw herself at them until whatever “it” was, was met.

Now at 11, it’s no longer a dog, it’s a phone.

It doesn’t matter how many discussions about phones and the fact she is not getting one until she needs one and that will be determined by her parents, not by her, we have. She will not give up. Again, we are at the year point, maybe more of this endeavor.

Yesterday when discussing her reasons for wanting to go shopping on Black Friday she finally told me she wanted to buy herself a phone. I launched back into the same conversation we had had 1000 times, then I got mad (as I usually do around this topic).

And then I tried to find the positive in this and I looked at her and said, “PJ, I really appreciate your determination.” Then I proceeded to tell her the story of what I always said to her when she was 2.

I would look at you, get right down to eye level and say, “Someday PJ THIS is going to serve you well, just not today!”

PJ’s response to that little tale, “Well, apparently it won’t serve me TODAY either!”

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