Originally Posted by DeeDee
Originally Posted by aquinas
It's a real disservice to any child-- gifted or otherwise--not to offer an immersive, engaging environment. I wish more people understood that deprivation of intellectual stimulation is the mental equivalent of withholding food to children. They need all-encompassing nourishment and nurturing. Aargh!!

Just thinking this through, though:

If you look at the history of parenting, even parenting kids who turn out to contribute brilliantly to society, "all-encompassing nurturing" is extremely unusual. It's a trend of our time, but didn't exist much before now.

When I grew up it was normal to be turned loose to play outside for long periods; nobody thought my mother was failing to nurture me by not talking to me 15 hours a day. In some societies, they have the 6-year-olds doing a lot of housework and contributing to the family's sustenance by generating income or carrying water. I'm not sure that's the kind of nurture anybody here is practicing, but I don't think it's necessarily wrong either.

I totally agree about providing intellectual stimulation in principle, and I talk to my kids a ton; but I profoundly dislike what I see a lot of these days, the making of motherhood into a high-pressure, high-stakes enterprise that must be done a certain way.

DeeDee

I would say " all-encompassing nurturing", as I termed it, is as much about interpersonal interaction as it is about giving your child the skills to be self-sufficient in an age-appropriate way. To me, nurturing would include providing a diversity of environments and experiences that support exploration, like the one you enjoyed as a child. To that extent, I think many parents throughout time have used the approach I describe just by incorporating their children into day-to-day activities as active participants, rather than as passive bystanders.




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