My Daughter is Gifted

My daughter competed in a talent show at day camp.  She played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on a kazoo, and sweetly, naively, hoped she would win.  Thankfully the camp counselors gave little plastic gold medals to all the participants, and so my daughter, unclear on who actually won, was happy.  She's not a talented little girl, at least in the traditional sense.

But she does have more obscure talents.  The girl can talk.  And talk.  And talk.  When she went for a haircut, and chattered on and on through the entire appointment, the hairstylist finally said to her, "I think you woke up with a whole lot of words in your body today."  Even when we shush her in exasperation when we're trying to talk on the phone, for example, or sleep, she can talk and talk about how quiet she is being.  We think talking may be her super power.

And she can contain her puke.  When she got car sick in the rental car on the second day of our vacation, we discovered this talent.  We truly appreciated it.  It was a summer vacation in a hot climate.  She held her puke in her mouth until I was able to get a spare jacket arranged in her lap for her to spew into.  (Having a spare jacket along at all times is actually my super power.)

It may be a reach to say that she is gifted.  But lots of times parents of small children will extrapolate from their children's behavior to future success in some high-gain career.  Shrewd negotiating to get their own way over their parents' objections means children are destined to be lawyers.  Bossing around their little friends means children are destined to be president.  By this reasoning, my child is destined to be a lawyer and the president.  Funny how watching children dance around the house naked, refusing to get dressed, rarely makes parents speculate that their children will grow up to be strippers.  But if it did, our daughter would definitely do that too.  She is clearly destined to be a smooth-talking, puke-holding, exotic dancing president, if she doesn't first become a ballerina, cowgirl, scientist, or professional kazoo player.