I've been meaning to post on this but have been so busy lately! Anyways. About that mom. I don't know.. I try and give people the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she felt comfortable enough in that group to say these things? Maybe she's just clueless about what's acceptable to say and what's not? Although, that's a shame that she didn't seem to notice her kid like you said, it might have been a one time deal. It doesn't sound like you know her very well so there could've been something external to this meeting that caused her to act that one. I guess, I'm just saying this to add a different point of view. I'm not saying your wrong or anything.
I've had a few times so far where people have approached me about their kids being potentially gifted. If people find out what I do for a living they assume I was gifted growing up and that DD probably is too (ok, not wrong assumptions in this case) and I think they might just feel more comfortable "coming out" about it. Maybe it was a similar situation?
It does sound like you live in a very crazy area with everyone pushing early academics. I can relate. Here it is NUTS and sometimes I feel like I should be signing up DD for a billion different classes, etc. However, we can't afford any of that. It made winter pretty tough being stuck at home all day and especially with DD not sleeping much at all anymore but we just got creative. We really looked around for good indoor activities, tried out a bunch of different playgroups, etc. Now that the weather is better we're at the playground at least twice per day.
We try and follow DD's lead as much as possible so ditto for the books. She's also one that will want me reading a book to her while she may be reading her own books. Or other times we have 5 books out at once and she'll keep switching in between them. She also went through a phase where she didn't want to read as much too and we just waited it out. I don't like hearing about parents forcing stuff like that at such a young age. However, I guess it's their right...
