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

When you and your kid spend an hour reading about Greek Letters and their use in math and science on Wikipedia and spend much of the laughing your heads off at phrases like "the Skorokhod integral in Malliavin calculus, a subfield of stochastic analysis" or "the first-order effects of variations in Coriolis force with latitude in planetary dynamics" and calling bologna on circular seeming definitions like "a measure in measure theory."

Your daughter describes her experience on today's standardized math test: "I checked all my answers twice and still finished before everyone else. It was as easy as the [standardized] spelling test yesterday, which I also checked twice and finished first."

When your teen works VERY hard to "pass" among her academic peers 4 years older... only to discover that other parents don't believe that she is actually only 14 years old.

{Not sure why any 18yo-- or her parents-- would lie about being 14 instead, but there ya go...}

Oh gosh HK And here I was kinda hoping that that whole "you're how old??!!??" thing passes with age. *sigh* that must be infuriating for her (and you!)

Yeah, well, it gets significantly more COMPLICATED when they are young and entering... the dating years. Especially if, as so many PG kids do, they learn to 'pass' as older more or less invisibly. That's both a good thing and a bad one-- if they DO mention their age, they can come off as insufferably boorish braggarts, and if they don't, then they risk others not realizing JUST how young they actually are-- and there are legal consequences, potentially, for older companions. Some of those potential consequences are quite severe. This is a significant social burden for very young college students, actually.



Another one today-- when your kid does something that is so material for the ultimate brag thread, but you can't actually, you know, brag about it... because... it's too identifying.

So I have to be vague. But I can't talk about it with anyone else IRL without sounding insufferable.

Thinking about dating stresses me out! I can only imagine!

Yesterday my DD had a huge mosquito bite and, as I was applying anti-itch ointment, my DS6 runs up to her and says, "OH WOW! That bite reminds me of Jupiter's giant spot. It's a storm that has been raging for three hundred years."

This morning my son brought home a painting from school that looked like something he would have made in preschool in that it was all squiggles (our son paints better than most adults). I pulled it out and asked what it was and he sighed and replied, "Mummmmm.... That's the cool, dry air mixing with the warm, moist air to create a tornado."

HK - I'm sorry that you have nowhere safe to brag. If it would help, you are welcome to PM me - far away in another country... We all need someone to share our excitements with!

And yes, those dating years worry me. I remember with me, I always dated older guys - they always so easily forgot how young I was...

You know you are parenting a gifted child when you are okay with letting others assume that something you are buying/making/considering is for your oldest child instead of the youngest of the three

you take your sick kid to your lecture, and you ask the class, "How many of you know what onomatopoeia is?" and about 20% of the college students raise their hands, and the 6yo pipes up "I do!"

I'd love to hear your brag by pm if you were willing, HK!