My children are gifted.

What I enjoy most about Kids is their gift of innocence and exploration as their minds expand like sponges. Kids have the ability to believe if someone doesn't put up their own walls around them! Sounds like fun!

The heat and humidiyt has been terrible here. Stay cool!

So many parents seem incapable of discerning the line between appropriate encouragement for their children and the creation of little narcissists. The most important thing we, as parents, can learn is when to say, "Honey, that doesn't appear to be your cup of tea. Let's find something else."

Of course, one sees the misbegotten results of such failure on the first few episodes of American Idol every season.

Have fun on your vacation.

Cheers.

I do hate it when people who have done nothing in their own lives live vicariously through whatever meager achievements their children can attain. Same with the kid league coaches who take it way too seriously because they wanted to be sports stars.

Of course, MY kids ARE special though. Just kidding! I love your attitude and how you approach these events.

all kids are gifted somehow. those with kinesthetic abilities are so often dismissed its crazy, but imagine how much less rich our world would be without them.

mine fit under the usual rubrik, but it's not something I mention unless it's somehow salient, and even then try to avoid saying it.

Thanks for stopping by Lisa. I love having company. Please don't misunderstand me - I think everyone is special in our own way. I'm referring to the barrage of parents I encounter who tell me their children are geniuses.

My kid's in Irish Dance (which is a weird thing already). She loves it. She is, well, ok. She's a beginner, and she is kinda lazy, but she loves the hair and dresses and the oohs and ahs she gets from the grandparents. So we do it. Someday she may be passable as a team dancer. That's my hope for her. That I don't say out loud. But it drives me crazy to sit with the other moms in that waiting room and listen to them plan out their daughters' Irish Dance lives. It's worse than anything else we've been involved with. I keep thinking they're joking around: "Well, then we'll go to nationals when she's 12" or something like that. But they have a plan.

On the other hand, I'm always shoor darned pleased when the 3 year old says please and thank you without being prompted. That's *almost* a reflection on me. The ability to jig? Not really.

I guess what I was trying to say is that even if it were the case, it's rude to say.

My favorite variant is the parent who's all but applied for the spot at Harvard Medical for a kindergartner, and is horrified that I haven't planned that far ahead for my 3rd grader.

I'll blame my linguistic shortcomings on the heat.

I hope you have a great vacation with hubby and the kids! My kids are average in the grand scheme of things but they are special to me. Now my nephew . . . . .