When I'm in a social situation and a parent talks about their child's achievement, I smile and ask leading questions to keep them talking about that child. Invariably, I've found most don't ask me much because they are so busy talking up their child. When someone does ask, like others here have said, I use words like "busy", "loves to learn", "sensitive", etc. I don't give specifics. I learned not to do that when DS was three and reading random signs in the office of secretary at our insurance agent. She said, "You did that to him?!" in response to my sharing he knew all his letters and could count past 75 at two.
Since then, the only people (IRL) I've brought up my son's abilities with are his grandparents and his school, past and present, for the proper placement.
The grandparents are varying degrees of enthusiastic, and I share accordingly. The school people are on a need-to-know basis and I find they've generally been either incredulous, excited, subdued or a bit hostile. The hostility of his current teacher surprised me. Call me naive, but I really thought a teacher, of all people, wouldn't hold it against us for our son doing well.
