Here's why you don't win

Seven year old boys remind me greatly of bear cubs. They are playful, a bit rough and tumble, and very, very competitive.

Today I was up at my son's school watching another first grade class line up to go back inside after recess. Two boys busily playing playground games against one another didn't realize their class had lined up. They both looked up at the exact same moment to see their classmates and teacher waiting for them. Both boys immediately jumped into a hard sprint in what was clearly an impromptu race.

The boy who reached the class line first immediately said, "Ha! I won!" To which the other boy, who was only a mere step behind, promptly replied with great satisfaction, "Doesn't count! I was dawdling!"

dawdle
verb
1. To take more time than necessary.
2. To move aimlessly or lackadaisically.
3. To waste (time) by idling.
[Perhaps alteration of dialectal daddle, to diddle.]
"dawdle." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Answers.com 01 Mar. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/dawdle