Oh boy, how long have you got? Here's the brief version.
Yes, I was a smart kid. It was - complicated. I was a school success, but (by inclination perhaps, and by school forcing certainly) in the perfectionist mode. I remember literally being told that since I was bored in the maths lesson I should occupy myself learning to write neater integral signs. That kind of thing. And these were good schools - but I was on track to get top marks and into a top university, and apparently nobody thought that that might not be enough. At home I was miserable, mostly. My father, typically for the time, was hardly involved, and my mother - well, she loved me, I expect, and is fundamentally a good person, but she had no empathy with me. I came out successful, but emotionally damaged. A key observation is that my intellect has never been what's limited my achievement - when I fail to achieve what I want to, it's anxiety or fear that stops me (even now, after lots of work). Similar remarks apply to my DH.
The effect on our parenting: we aspire to be attachment parents (Sears) and unconditional parents (Kohn). Those buzzwords are compatible, and share a core of respect for the child's feelings, whatever they may be, and trusting that everyone has aligned interests in the long run so that there isn't any need to coerce, either by praise or blame.
I could go on, but that's long enough :-)
