Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Tell me some positive things about gifted kids

My DS9 is a project guy. It's amazing he has been creating his own card game for 3yrs. It's simiar to Pokemon.

He loves to sing(loud)everyday while he is in the playroom to Kids bop and doing his legos.

He is amazing in what he can figure out.

I think if he didn't have his gifted challenges in the toddler years, we wouldn't have learned so much and I may not of known he was so gifted. Those difficulties lead us to a whole different way of understanding my children.

I too have periods where I wonder what the positives of parenting a gifted child are, but here's what I love:

- DD4's humour, which often comes out of nowhere and when you least expect it.
- I think it was mentioned earlier, but that you get to skip some of the less interesting books and games, or at least do them for a shorter period.
- Her kindness
- That she is really good company (as I am sure many 'normal' kids are too), and we can chat about interesting things.
- That I know she knows more than she lets on (sometimes we get to see just how far ahead she is when she forgets we're in the room), which makes me curious and excited about the future.
- Her intense, intense love for her dad and I.
- The look of satisfaction when she's really had to think to figure something out, it's like a light goes on behind her eyes.
- That I have learnt so much about me in the process of learning about her - it's been very liberating.

Good luck with the sleep! Is it possible that your DS is not so much lacking social skills as in the wrong social group? I've always thought it must be such hard work trying to learn how to interact socially when you're very different from everyone around you (it's hard enough as an adult!). Wish you all the best,

Ari

LOL, same thing here. Monopoly is still DS10s favorite game for game night. Somehow, he always ends up bankrupting DH or me with only two properties (we have the Star Wars and World editions, so the two that correspond to Boardwalk and Park Place in the original). Sometimes, I really wish he would have enjoyed Monopoly Jr, but he was over that after playing it a couple of times.

Positive thing about it - DS could be the banker because he was able to add/subtract large numbers in his head. That still baffles us sometimes when we think back on it.

from DD10
- her amazing photography
- beautiful poems that she writes (the best presents ever)
- her creativity
- her goofy sense of humor
from DD8
- her ability to think of questions that never would have occurred to me
- her ability to hear music at a depth that is beyond me
- her empathy
- her charisma
from DS5
- his fierce independence and ability to work around almost any "no" (this can be exasperating too).
None of them slept well in the early years -- who would have thought that "Horton Hears a Who" would have led to a nightmare about the mean monkeys and the great injustice in the world? that we would still have to watch the end of the movie first so that we would know that all the stressful stuff will turn out alright?
Try to grab hold of those good moments. It will get better.

I'm in awe of my children's idealism and strong ethical concerns. It makes the challenges of their early years well worth it!

Keep these coming! Thank you so much for making me feel better. I just realized that I didn't say something positive too! I have the most fantastic conversations with LB. Life is never boring with him. His enthusiasm for learning matches mine. LC amazes me everyday. We just figured out that she knows the color yellow--if you ask her to get the yellow object she can pick it every time!

I spoke with a wonderful sleep consultant/psychologist (who didn't even charge me!) today about LC's habit of waking up at the 40 minute mark and screaming for an hour every night before falling asleep (if we go in she literally won't go to sleep AT ALL and gets into this weird wired, overly tired state). She said that some crying is actually GOOD for intelligent, sensitive babies like LC. Apparently they receive so much more sensory input during the day than ND babies that some need to cry at night to help them process everything that happened during the day. Basically it's a way of letting off steam. She said it should eventually stop once LC is talking. She said to ignore Dr. Sears and stop feeling guilty. I hope no one flames me for this...I was really against crying-it-out until we were confronted with this situation.

You will always have to be learning and investigating new things just to keep up. I am considered smart but some questions involve getting more info. Unfortunately my DS is a robot man and I am a complete zip at electronics and computors. Well at least he can teach me.

LOL! It is kind of funny that I had the same problem but Dr. Sears actually helped me deal with it - his fussy baby book made me realise that IT WASN'T ME!

I always say go with your instincts. My particular children got very upset and overwrought if I wasn't there, so I used to just sit with them while they cried, until they calmed down and were ready to sleep. But I have heard some people say that their children found having the parent there too stimulating, and it made it worse. To me that's different from cry-it-out because your not really trying to train them, your just letting them go to sleep the best way for them.

I watch my kids, they will let me know what they need. If they get stressed out, something isn't working. If they are happy, it must be alright.

Actually, I love Dr. Sears too! His information about high-needs and reflux babies was so helpful with my first child. I'm just ignoring his statements that crying will horribly damage my second child.

If we go in to LC or give her any sort of stimulation she will wake up every 30 minutes or not sleep AT ALL--leading to MORE crying. So you can see our predicament? If we allow her to work it out off and on for an hour she gets 10 hours of sleep. If we respond she cries in total more than an hour and gets little or no sleep.

Before the sleep training LC was so sleep-deprived that she was in a constant aggitated, wired state. Now she wakes up squealing and giggling and full of energy. The psychologist said that in the context of a loving environment like LC has (she pretty much does ZERO crying during the day), a little bit of crying at night can be "optimal" for her development.

Sorry LBLCMama, that's what I was saying. I hope you didn't think I was criticizing. What I meant was that I can't follow any one method blindly, and to tell if something is working I should look to the kid, not the method. YKWIM?

It must have been extremely stressful for you all!