Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion You know you're parenting a gifted child when...

...You're looking through photos of a trip to an out of town science museum from 2 months ago and your DS23mo tells you you're missing a photo...the one of an Archimedes' Screw.

When the 3 year old in the booster seat behind you asks,

(Boy) "Dad....has anyone ever been to the sun?"

Me) "No, nobody has ever been to the sun."

(Boy) "Well then, how do we know that it's a burning mass of gas and not a portal to another dimension?"

Good question!

Not sure if this one has been posted yet but...


You know you parenting a gifted child when ... your child rotuinely gets in trouble for working ahead and above grade level.

Today's conversation:
Friend/Aquaintance: "Hi, how is DS doing in school?"
Me: "Okay, I guess."
Friend: "Getting calls from the teacher?"
Me: "Yes."
Friend: "What's he doing?"
Me: "Well, he keeps getting in trouble for reading books above his designated level and working ahead in math. it was the same thing last year."
Friend, looking perplexed: "I don't understand? Wouldn't that be the model student?"
ME: "I guess not because he gets his "good tickets" taken away for it and I keep getting phone calls about it."
Friend: "That's so strange!"
Me: "Yes. Yes it is."

... your 14yo is switching (fluidly) between why a college discussion class she sat in on was "the most awesome 50 minutes of my life so far" and--

a discussion of the merits of making a bow for her Halloween costume of "Woodland Elf."


She's going to rock the children's Halloween party that she always works at. (She's very thoughtful about picking costumes that are non-threatening but fantastic/extensive. Last year she was Rainbow Dash.)

On your last trip to the grocery store, you spent more money on stuff for various experiments your kids planned than you did on food for your family to eat.

ha that is awesome, MidwestMom! i've got one that's similar - when your kid saves up and then spends three weeks of allowance on a series of funnels for her science experiments.

Yeah, I remember going to a school readiness talk and asking in all innocence if that was what he needed to know to start school what is he supposed to do between 3 and 5 years? And gifted didn't occur to me.

Taking him to the library used book sale leaves you completely and utterly frazzled (of course, also having his younger brother along made it worse). First, he insisted on taking all his quarters and his small bills, even though we told him I would cover him.

Once there, he ran upstairs to the sale (this is our second sale trip), and got to work. Back and forth between the children's tables and the oh-so-sweet retired lady volunteers, who think he's a riot. He's very polite, insisted on paying for his brother's finds as well and of course can do his own calculations. However, the crack cocaine that is books was coursing through his veins and he kept disappearing around the corner to go buy more. The final straw was when I found that he'd slipped away to purchase what appears to be a very detailed Joan of Arc biography for (much older) children. Being not quite ready to discuss being burned at the stake with a seven-year-old, I confiscated it and he was Not Pleased. Because why in the world is it Too Old for HIM?!

A candy store wouldn't be as bad with this one.

LOL-- I gave up even VETTING reading material at about that point, honestly... of course, you may not want to do that, as my then-12-yo found Mary McGarry Morris novels a bit... er... shocking, in spite of their (incredibly appealing) heft and number of bonus pages.

... you know you're parenting a gifted child when your 14yo combines Doctor Who with a traditional Japanese folk/ghost story, and decides that this is EASILY the best novel of all time, and is clearly a great NaNoWriMo novel. For this year, I mean.

Come to that, you might be parenting a giftie if your child was not yet into double-digit ages the first time s/he completed a NaNoWriMo novel.