Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Hothousing- did you, didn't you, will you?

I absolutely believe parents are the ones responsible for the child's education - whether that child is GT or not.

I think the bad connotation with hothousing (and I think this has been mentioned by someone before) is with the picture of a parent forcing learning down a child's throat - such as with flashcards at a very early age - and with the child miserable all the time and not interested. Taking them to museums, parks, etc. isn't what I think of as hothousing in the negative connotation. That is just doing what a responsible parent does.

Supplementing with things that your child is interested in or with things that they are not getting at school, is not pushing at all in my opinion and should be done. questions stated "I never would have done the extra work with him, saying I'm not one of those parents, and I don't want to push him. It never occurred to me that it would be good for him, and that he'd even enjoy it." delbows said "something has to be done to make up for the lack of writing instruction for the last two years of my daughter�s education." Neither of these is hothousing in my opinion at all. That is supplementing when supplementing needs to be done.

And sure, sometimes your kid has to do something they don't want to do (i.e. boring homework ) and they have to do it. But trying to force your child into being a little genius when they aren't interested and don't need to do the work and really aren't capable of doing the work is when I see the problem (and thus the negative connotation).

Total hands off parenting isn't good for any kid. But neither is being forced to live up to an expectation that is just impossible for the child to live up to. That is the picture I get when I think of "hothousing". And I seriously doubt anyone on this board is doing any such thing.