Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy When to advocate?

Cathy...."btdt" (been there done that for newbies!) with the "waiting". Don't wait too long. It's hard to find the right time to call them on that though. Their hope typically seems to be that you "wait" them right out of having to do anything. Perhaps schedule a meeting now, giving them a week or two to have something to present. "How about we schedule a sit down for the third week of October, to talk about how he's doing with the _________". Good luck!

BTW, Cathy: I second Dottie. Don't wait too long. If they don't figure out how to educate him pretty quickly, I recommend advocacy. Especially given how bright he clearly is, your waiting is not likely to work in his favor. Ask for a meeting, and bring those test results with you.

I sympathize with you. It's hard to know when to take action. I joke that I have my good and bad angels on my shoulders: my "don't say or do ANYTHING" mom on one shoulder, and my "go on the warpath NOW" friend on the other. All through my DS's preschool and K, I tried to thread a middle way between them, and I think he suffered for it. There is no middle way that I can see. You either advocate or you don't.

I've come to the conclusion that for me and my personality, the warpath (albeit the nicest, most polite warpath possible!) is going to be my most natural tack. But when it comes down to it, I'd rather be "that mom" than have my DS be "that kid." And it became clear to me over and over in the past three years that those were really the only choices allowed to us!

Aren�t allergies and giftedness correlated, or did I just dream that?