Remember, I'm only talking about people who look for any excuse to announce Junior's latest accomplishment, not people who are responding on-topic in a conversation or trying to advocate for their kids!
Well. Anyone talking to me is going those stories if I say anything at all. I'm a SAHM with a comfortably boring life. If I tell you what my kid's learning lately it's not because I'm living through my kid, it is because I am living with my kid. We watch t.v., play board games, walk/bike to the post office & the library on schedule, 3 meals a day on schedule, kids in bed at 8:30. If I want to tell you what we've been doing lately then what the boy's studying is the only new thing that's happening. (unless I just painted a mural on the mirror or something). It's actually what we've been doing this week. Everything runs on schedule. Grass is growing.
I do have a brag blog, but it really started because I was reading about academic portfolio's a long time ago and what I read was that it was good to make a portfolio that chronicled the pace of your kids educational development in case you end up talking to any kind of educational consultant they can easily look at your kids development. I just like my electronic portfolio. Yeah, I share it sometimes.
On the last part, about giftedness itself. My gramma said if you ever do talk about iqs say a different # because most people don't go over a certain #. (sadly I heard that advice too late. I could have used it as a new mother looking to join a certain gifted parent forum-ouch). Conversely, the hubby calls me out on changing the way I talk around other people. What's the difference? I haven't seen anybody that needs me to be as smart as I can be, or really has any use or need for it. Really the only ones who need to know have often told me spontaneously, "I know you're really smart because I'm really smart". Nowadays some people tell me my kid's really smart and I say, "Yup."
That's why I'm excited that my kids will likely go to gifted kids things when they're older. It's like, yeah, if it doesn't really matter then why do other people act like it does. If it does matter then who should it matter to? With "their" logic (the famous non-existant they) Giftedness is only supposed to matter to people who were born without the giftedness. It should not be know about by the gifted themselves, or acknowledged to their neighbors. But it it must never be hidden and should be used for some legitimate purpose.
Someone in that first gifted parenting forum accused me of having a "giftedness fetish" (for putting a gifted label on baby too young). I actually ask myself if it's sheltering or bizarre that I consider a gifted forum group to be some good friends. I just posted some stuff on another forum (not the well trained mind) because the subject of education came up. Someone said "all homeschoolers are racists whites" in response to someone considering homeschooling. I made a couple pages of informative and funny posts refuting the nonsense. I got the feeling my posts were way too long for the viewers to read, and I edited them and was concise. They were shorter than my posts here. I didn't get much of a conversation and out of the useful information I shared (i offered reality and resources, not arguments) the closest I got to a conversation was somebody saying, "we get it. You're a good writer". Here if I've got good information people use it, and I get good information here. Is it so wrong to like that?
I read the article this thread's about. Hoagie's posted it on Facebook. The article didn't really seem that original.
Val, I quoted your post because I always do talk about my kid's latest accomplishments, the relevant part to whoever I'm updating, friends, families, neighbors..and I do have a mommy brag blog with real pictures. I post most of the pics here too so y'all don't have to look @ my blog since I don't really talk on it so much, it's more of a record. I do most of my talking here.
Hope this post doesn't seem like I'm at a lost for what to do about it. I don't feel that way. I'm just pointing out the irony. Also, I'm worrying about the guidelines if the style of my long conversational posts is considered "on topic" and not violating the "no journaling" rule.
