Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Not-really-brag-so-much-as-quirky- anecdote thread

I saw a National Geographic Almanac at the store today and picked it up for DD. When she came home from school we had a few friends over playing and she was so excited to see them...until she saw the almanac. Now she has been sitting at the table for over 30 minutes telling (with lots of excitement!) her friends to come look at her book as she explains everything she is reading. Her friends keep begging her to go outside but she is so into her new book. When they ask when she will be done she says 355 minutes lol
I love her passion!

I had to tell this story because well I am not sure anyone else will "get" it the way you all do. It's not just about DD but me as well. So I am making DD9 Halloween costume and she is going as a Jedi Padawan, (which I had to explain to her hairstylist today.) and we have been slowly piecing her costume together. Boots, slacks, undershirt, tunic, belt and lightsaber are all ready. Still need to make the obi (the sash thing they wear over the tunic) and her cloak. I have been looking everywhere for inexpensive material for the cloak and finally found brown curtains that have a rough texture to it. After buying I realized I had just unintentionally mixed two completely unrelated movies. Gone with the Wind (Scarlett O'Hara's curtain dress) with Star Wars. Which of course led me to thinking about the Carol Burnett show with her version of the curtain dress.

So now while I am making this costume I am giggling like a goon and my daughter is wondering if I am laughing at her. "No dear, just thinking about something that should not be related to this at all."
She said with a smile, "Oh I do that all the time at school. It makes the day less boring." So maybe now I know where the possible ADD comes from.

About a year ago my son and I were leaving a swim meet and I asked him what took so long to cool down/how much was his cool down? He admitted that he lost track of how much he was doing and just kept swimming because he was figuring out the plot of his novel while he cooled down. And then for the half hour ride home did the audio version of the novel's early draft.

This all makes perfect sense to me!

This isn't quirky but down right depressing.

We were goofing around today and she was being a bit physically aggressive so I said jokingly that she is going to kill me. I don't think I ever used the word kill before but it slipped. She froze up and looked very seriously and said "And you'll be cremated?" I asked her if she knew what the word meant and she said it means burning a body so it turns into bones and ashes. She then held onto me in silence.

I need to figure out where she was exposed to this. It didn't come from us, books, school, or movies. I'm always around when she has playdates with other children.

She deserves a happier childhood.

I'd ask her; I bet she'll be cognizant of the source.

Some messages here about existential discussions have given me an idea of the type of lines I may use with DS. You're welcome to test drive them if you think they aren't terrible.

"We have lots family who have lived into their late 90s. With medical advances, I plan to live to at least 130, at which point you'll be really old; over 100."

oh, Mana - i'm so sorry to hear your bean is starting to deal with such big issues. aquinas is so right, though, there are a lot of great posts on existential pain here and lots of good advice.

we've been through a bit of that stuff with DD in the past, but she's worked through it to a point where her perspective seems ok (for now.) if it helps at all, the one thing in your post that really stood out for me was the moment where she just held you quietly - it is indeed a bittersweet experience, but it seemed like a really wonderful demonstration of your mutual closeness.

so my thing is super-dumb but it's making me smile. DD5 now uses "whom" as the object pronoun.

Thank you aquinas and doubtfulguest for your support. I was caught off-guard and it's hard to accept that the protective bubble I thought I was raising her in was mostly all in my head. I know rationally, it's easier to help them cope with rational fear than with irrational childhood terrors but I'm not sure if I'm ready to have a conversation about my own mortality with my 3 year old yet.

Going back to quirkiness, DG, being able to use the word "whom" is not super-dumb at all. I'm sure your DD sounds positively charming.

Our newest. DD loves feeding birds. She feeds them almost daily. It was a beautiful day yesterday so we decided to drive an hour to picnic on a scenic spot for lunch. She then meets a little tiny bird and she is convinced that that bird is evil and wants to steal her lunch. She cries so inconsolably that we had to pack our lunch and eat in the car. She is just so, so, strange.

I have had those moments with DD7 -- she becomes absolutely convinced that something awful will happen with something, and cries and cries. Not so much lately, but all her life, off and on. She went through a period of being terrified of wind. She wouldn't go outside if there was even a breeze, and if she could hear the wind in a storm, she would freak out and go on and on about the house blowing away and stuff like that. She obsessed about the weather channel, but if any weather came near her, she hated it.

DD14 notes (in doing research for an essay about a medical ethics hot-button topic);

Have you noticed how as soon as a writer starts yammering about "The Truth" then you can be pretty confident that they aren't likely to be all that concerned about -- well, facts-- along the way??