I feel fortunate that I haven't heard many negative comments from people about DS's gradeskip. Most people just seem curious. Maybe that's because around here most people feel that they are giving their kids an advantage by starting them in Kindergarten a year late. They just think I'm crazy--I don't think they're feeling threatened.
I've had two comments that I would consider negative:
Vice-principal: If it were my child, I wouldn't have him skip because he'll miss phonics and phonics is crucial.
I wanted to tell her that missing phonics was the point of skipping first grade, but instead I thanked her for her advice.
I think she means well...
Another mom (of mg kids) was complaining to me about the curriculum and I asked her if she had considered a gradeskip for her DD. She replied, "I wouldn't do
that to her!"
So now I know how she really feels... After she blurted that out she seemed to realize that she was implicitly criticizing our decision to skip DS and backpedalled a bit.
But mostly people just seem curious for a while and then the novelty wears off. People have pretty much stopped asking me about it now. I do still get occasional fishing questions like, "So, how is your DS doing in 2nd grade?" (Odd that they rarely ask about DD...) I've decided to just ignore the subtext there and answer the question at face value--just as I would if he had not skipped.
