So your kid is gifted? O.K. whatever.

I’m always hearing from other parents how their kid is somehow gifted or way ahead everybody else’s, like “my kid could change his own diaper at 6-months” or “my kid walked when the cord was cut…then paid the hospital bill”. Yeah, these are exaggerations, but if you’re new to the parenting thing you’ve probably heard this in some form or another. I know I have since day 2. It may just be normal competitiveness, mutated X-Men genes, or some people actually really push their kids to become Doogie Houser M.D. by kindergarten.
I came across this pretty entertaining article from Parent Center on school age giftedness. I say entertaining because its criteria are 5-years old who can “perform mathematical calculations in her head”, or “Thinks abstractly… advanced mathematical and linguistic concepts and can talk about such complex issues as ethics, morality, and religion”. Honestly, I just view kids like this as freaks and feel pretty sorry for them because more than likely they have parents who are depriving them of childhood.
I’ve been teaching an art class once a week for nearly 3-years now and I came across a kid like this once and he had trouble talking/relating to kids his own age. Even ones a few years older and wouldn’t you know it - he had parents that really encouraged this. In my humble opinion, I was surprised the kid could even operate a door handle.