Originally Posted by zhian
Why all the eggshells? Parents are supposed to brag. I'm 23 and my dad still brags about me - which is less embarrassing than it used to be, thanks to me being in another country most of the time. wink

Parents of star athletes talk about their kids' games all the time. Parents of average-ability kids who just played Shepherd #2 in the school Christmas play gush to their friends about how their little one stole the show. Parents whose kids just got into university (or East Mayberry Community College, for that matter)? They buy the sweatshirt and wear it every day until it falls off them in a heap of thread. If your son is five years old and thinking like a twelve-year-old, there's nothing wrong with talking about that - ESPECIALLY not in answer to a direct question asked during a conversation you didn't even start!
Lol, this is extremely culturally variable (I mean culture at the local level, i.e what happens in one's own group of parents - can't speak to whether there are higher level patterns too or not). None of the things you mention would happen among the parents I know at DS's school - this is one of those environments where it seems fine to talk about what your kid is bad at but not about what your kid is good at! Yet the conventions among my colleagues who are also parents is a bit different. Sounds as though what happens among the parents you know is very different again!

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