IMO, you weren't bragging and it would be hard for me to see how the counselor could have thought you were. You were helping your son, and it seems clear (to me at least) that you did exactly the right thing for him. If there was an emoticon for patting someone on the back, I'd place it here.
I define gifted-kid bragging as openly telling the world or anyone who will listen (whether they want to or not) about how smart your kid is ("You won't believe what he did today! And then he did this! And afterwards, he did that!!"). This could happen in a conversation at the park, at a birthday party, online, or wherever.
To me, the purpose of over-the-top bragging is for the parent's ego. This type of bragging doesn't consider the needs or desires of the child (e.g. does DS really want everyone knowing that he learned how to multiply when he was 4? Shouldn't his parents leave that decision up to him?). Obviously, sometimes we have to say things about our kids' abilities (to schools for example). This is not bragging: we are trying to meet our kids' needs when we do this.
Obviously, every parent takes pride in what our kids do. Being happy about the fact that your child got an A on a tough test or caught the winning pass is normal, and so is wanting to talk about it. This is healthy. But celebrating achievement in a healthy way is different from telling everyone how smart your kid is.
Of course, celebrating achievement can turn into over-the-top bragging too --- and again, when this happens, it's for the parent, not the kid.
Last edited by Val; 02/02/12 03:25 PM. Reason: More detail added
