Dawdling....A Marketable Skill?

As you may or may not know, I have an amazing 13-year-old daughter with an unparalleled ability to dawdle.  Per dictionary.com the definition of "dawdle" is: to waste time; idle; trifle; loiter.  Yep, that's her.

One of our most "famous" family stories is from when she was 6 or 7.  It was time to leave to take her to school and I couldn't find her ANYWHERE!  We didn't have a huge house (3 bedroom ranch), so I had that moment of sheer panic no parent ever wants to experience.  I was calling her name frantically and receiving no response!  My mind went to all the horrible things you think of in those moments when you can't find your child.

Then, I found her.  In the space between the guest room bed and wall.  We had recently had new carpet installed and so there were those fuzz balls that seems to come with new carpet installation.  In this small space, was my beautiful (alive and healthy, whew!) daughter.  She had created an entire barnyard of farm animals - cows, sheep, a dog - out of the carpet fuzz.

I watched her for a few moments, allowing the complete and utter relief of finding her to wash over me before the inevitable anger kicked in.  Only, this time, it never got to rear it's ugly head.  While the relief was still tangible, she looked up at me and said, "Hi, Mom!  See my sheep? (Holding up in her tiny palm what, to me, looked like nothing more than a ball of carpet fuzz.)  If you think about it, this can help you better understand string theory."

Yes, she said "string theory".  How my 6-year-old KNEW about string theory is beyond me, but she went on to explain that if she can make carpet fuzz (which, according to her is a form of string) into sheep, then string theory makes perfect sense.  Of course it does, my love.

Since that time, I've often called her my "Little Raccoon" because all it takes is one small, shiny object, a previously discarded book or carpet fuzz to distract her from what she is really supposed to be doing.

Her teachers call this "divergent thinking".  I've mentioned it in a couple of my other blogs - here & here.  But, maybe my next blog will be just about that ONE characteristic.  I've often found that blogging about this stuff helps me better understand it.

But, back to today's blog...

Yesterday she was sent to her room to clean (and trust me, her room borders on qualifying for an episode of Hoarders: Buried Alive) at around 10:00 a.m.  Just prior to dinner, when the room was still not even CLOSE to being finished....well, let be realistic...it wasn't even close to being STARTED, I sent her outside to do some weeding (something she asked to do because she is saving money for a new iPod) and this is where I found her...

...in our tree.

It is now 10:44 am and she's going into Day 2 of cleaning.

So, I'm crying the proverbial "Uncle" and re-shifting my focus to figure out how to make this her most marketable skill.

I'm open to suggestions.

UPDATE:  Went into her room after I finished this and found her lying on the floor under her bed looking at a fork.  Yes, a fork.

"Uncle."