I am not sure it’s possible to make a more helpful reply than AEH’s. However, I’ll add a thought just in case... At least one of my children is “smarter than I am”. But all of them have at least one strength or area of knowledge that outstrips me, or soon will. A good example is music, people don’t come less musical than me, and all of my children are quite musical (with different instruments or areas of strength). I can’t read music, i can’t even sing, I can’t help any of them AT ALL if they have a problem with a piece. I can however tell if they are practicing enough, or if they are practicing well, I can discuss issues with their teachers that they may not understand themselves yet, I can find the opportunities and support them through nerves about participating... I’ve never done a musical exam or audition in my life, but I can still give them useful and valid advice about preparing for, completing and living with the results of exams and auditions. I can, for example, discern that a certain audition panel will be most concerned with technical perfection, while another opportunity may be judged more on artistic merit and engaging performance, which is something a 12 yr old may not consider... your child is still a child, they may not be like you were at their age, they may not be like many of their age peers, but they still need your wisdom and guidance, your love and your confidence that you are the parent they need, and you need to be particularly able to stay confident in the face of their childish or adolescent arrogance, which does seem to be more extreme in gifted children.
As AEH noted, though in completely different ways, my children can be very arrogant with us at times, and we deal with it. However, it is also clear that they view their home life, their siblings and parents as being “more like themselves” than what they encounter out in the world. I’ve had a teenager yell at me that they hate me and wish they didn’t have to live here... and the same child tell me that we are the best parents they know and most of their friends haven’t been “raised properly”... again with the arrogance of adolescents, I’m sure many to most of her peers do get decent parenting.
