Hi again,
Please forgive me if I sound a bit naive about this issue.
I have some friends with little ones, aged 2-4, who seem to be trying to implement setting gentle limits around interrupting. When my older son was that age, I didn't even think that that was something that could be achieved. I would have thought that it is too young to expect a child so young to use such self control around attention-getting. I also wonder whether it is fair and/or healthy to shut-out such young children from interacting, especially when they need something, whether emotional or physical. Maybe it is fine.
My younger son is now 2, and in the face of my friends' attempts with their children, I find myself wondering whether or not this is perhaps a good idea. The same goes for some other social behaviors, such as staying seated at the dinner table. My eight year-old interrupts all the time, and it's quite annoying. But since he's eight, I feel that I can have these conversations about this with him and expect that he show a little self-restraint.
As you all know, gifted kids are usually incredible INTENSE. This definitely goes for both my boys. And perhaps that's just the thing about parenting gifted kids - you can't always use the same techniques on them as you would with other non-gifted kids. They really want/need a constant audience and endless interaction, but makes it hard to have guests over for, say, dinner.
I'm learning that an easy way out is to hire babysitters (yes, two! One for each kid!) to play with the kids while we socialize. But is this wise?
