I completely agree with MegMeg and a lot of you here on this. Where I come from, I've had friends and acquaintances come up to rattle off a list of things their DC has done. Perhaps DS was a talking baby back then (he talked at 6 mths and walked at 13mths, so it seemed incongruous for a while). But they'd want to compare milestones and I was always stunned. Such detailed record keeping month by month of the number of pieces of jigsaw puzzles their kid did, or how many words the child can say at exactly which month. I realized later that, yup, these were checklists from the "What to Expect" series.
Don't get me wrong. It's fabulous of course. But what about the child's personality and his antics? What about the hilarious moments when his specialness shone through and outwitted the parent? That warmth that comes from recounting about the child (any child), rather than rattling a static list that has been checked. Like MegMeg says, I can't judge or assume to know that the other children are not gifted. But I've learnt my lesson well - when I meet parents who focus only on "The List" and not on the children themselves, I just steer clear.
On the other hand, the genuine love, affection and astonishment at your kids is obvious from so, so many of you here on the list. There IS a difference that I can't seem to put my finger on. So yes, I love to hear about how all your kids are doing. Like gratefulmom and Min says, it makes me realize this is a community that we completely belong to and can come to for support.
For once, we belong!
