I grew up being identified as gifted and participating in a few gifted pullouts in grade school. Because the programs back then were just enrichment activities that everyone would benefit from, my mom complained to the school about them and tried to make sure everyone got to do them (she was unsuccessful). She probably did this because my older brother was not identified as gifted by the school (looking back, i'm guessing he would be 2e). My parents never made a big deal out of giftedness, and so I never thought of myself as gifted. I was part of the state's first post-secondary enrollment plan, where I took all my classes my senior year at the local university.
DH never thought of himself as gifted either, and he had similar gifted pullout experiences and a mom who lobbied for gifted kids. He thought DS4's behaviors (including reading at 2.5) were normal.
The giftedness only kicked in when reading about our ds4's giftedness. I remember reading stories and saying "that was me!"
