I was reading this thread and was really confused about why we need to make our kids seem like less than they are. I'm quite honest about my daughter's skills but I can also commiserate about the frustration of having a Pre-schooler.
Depending... it can really put people off. The first time I joined a mom's group with DD at 7 or 8 months, the activity was a 45-minute walk through a wild area. My DD was focusing on birds and squirrels, getting very excited and making almost-distinguishable words naming them. I let her down a couple of times to walk with my fingers along the trail. (I really didn't think this was so unusual.) Their kids were lying in strollers crying because of the sun or the breeze, or maybe napping, or maybe smiling at mom. The moms thought I was making them look like fools. *That* group didn't work out for us.
Last I saw these moms - 10 years after the fact - they hadn't forgiven me. This makes it hard to live in a community where I will bump into them often, and you better believe they will remember and resent DD if their kids are in her class in high school.
It makes me angry to think that others expect me to hide my kid as a matter of courtesy, so I don't. At least the next advanced kid they meet might trigger some memory of another person they knew who was advanced too. I don't go out of my way to brag, but I answer direct questions with 'she's ahead in that topic,' and if they ask how much, they get the answer.
