Isa - you are wise, wise, wise to ask before you tell. Things didn't go well in our house. I didn't have this forum. I didn't have any idea that DS (or DH or myself) were particularly gifted. I thought that as long as we had faults, that we must not be so different. We certianly all have faults at my house!
This was a very big issue for us, as we don't celebrate Christmas or "Do Santa," and DS11 came home from preschool aged 3 asking,
"if Santa comes to bring presents to all the good children why doesn't he bring presents to me?"
If I had had more slack, and more sense, I would have make a joke: done a funny voice and said "Because you are very very bad" and started to play tickle-monster games.
Or perhaps I could have said "What do you think dear?" about a thousand times.
But, I started in with the various holidays, which one is ours, and that really (I don't want to say in case some of you leave your screen open and your child walks by and accidentally learns the truth)
Note - I think that if I had known my own sense as a gifted person at the time, I would have understood my own outraged sense of injustice better, and been able to handle this better.
Well, I would have thought that a child mature enough to ask the question would be mature enough not to embarrasse me socially by keeping his mouth closed. Acutally, even after the conversation about "somethings we only talk about at home" at 3 and 4, DS just couldn't resist torturing the other kids with his inside knowledge. He found it very amusing. I was mortified. It is strange how these little ones who speak and reason in such an adultlike way still have facets of their personality that are age appropriate. By 5 he had learned to not upset everyone in this fashion, but had learned many other ways to cause a stir. I was so grateful. By 5, also, he found it very very upsetting that the other parents were "tricking their children." Again I tried to explain the other perspective, but my DS is very fond of his own perspective.
I recently read that ages 11-14 bring a strengthening to a child's ability to see things from multiple perspectives, so I'm hoping to see this development. Then I look at DH and think, "I must be dreaming."
Smiles and Holiday Wishes,
Trinity
