Balancing the "gifted child" and their siblings

[Ridgerunner]

If that is his age, Calliope might (this is risky, but…) take him aside and tell him it would do his mom a lot of good if he got her more involved in things. Let HIM take the lead.

 

[Calliope]

In the end, I think that basically you should treat your kids the same whether they are gifted or challenged or as average as can be. You help them develop their talents and follow their interests, and overcome their weaker areas, all the while being loving, teaching discipline and how to get along with others.

 

[Allegra]

When I was a kid, my mother signed us up for everything, especially if it was free. Softball, hockey, basketball, scouts, piano, band, choir, dance, orchestra, musical theater, sewing, summer camp (overnight if possible), school trips, service projects, technically-illegal-underage-summer-jobs, etc.

Then she dropped us off (sometimes at the bus stop), told us to see if someone else’s parents could give us a ride home, and left us alone to enjoy it.

 

[mythbuster1]

Speaking from personal experience, it is less a danger of parents expecting the other kids to be like the exceptional one than for teachers to do so. My brother, though quite smart in his own right, couldn’t escape from his teachers comparing him to me.

 

[Xantippe]

Speaking from personal experience, it is less a danger of parents expecting the other kids to be like the exceptional one than for teachers to do so. My brother, though quite smart in his own right, couldn’t escape from his teachers comparing him to me.

That’s a good point.

That should be a required part of teacher training: siblings are not clones.

 

[otjm]

Parenting is part of it, but part of it also is the children; meaning both the one with the talents and those others (who undoubtedly have talents of their own). The parents can do the best parenting in the world and still, the children act as they are want to do, which may involve jealousy and envy as well as “I’m better than you” from the talented one.

And a tidbit: I think it was Thomas Sowell who wrote considering the statistics of first born, and in particular noted the strong skew, for example, of those applying and those admitted to medical school. First born skew, for whatever that is worth.