The Bloggy Bit
I have struggled to write this post. I have too many ideas. I haven’t been able to choose just one difficulty about being gifted. I really don’t think I’m that pessimistic or cynical, but oftentimes, there feel to be far more difficulties about being gifted than not. So – in lieu of being able to pick just one difficulty about being gifted, I’ve opted to create a list, in the form of an acrostic poem:
I know that some days, maybe most days, you feel ill-equipped to parent any child, let alone a higher needs child. I know that some days, maybe most days, you feel drained, battered, bruised and you fear how closely you’ve come to completely losing it with your children because of this. I know that your brain whispers fallacies and the gut-wrenching lie that you are an awful parent.
I don’t know your child. I don’t know your family. I have no idea what the right educational option is for you. But, I do know that there are options. There are always options. And I do know that the option which fits one child is not necessarily going to fit a second child, even if they share genetic material.
And it is in those moments when doctors or neighbors or friends try to relate to the “hardness” of parenting, that the true difference of parenting a differently wired child feels so much more isolating. Parenting is hard. Parenting the “easy” child is difficult. Parenting the fringy child is unyielding.
In this culture of child-centricity, it becomes easy to get lost. It becomes easy for homeschooling (or parenting in general) to become overwhelming or flat or uninspiring. It becomes easy to keep moving through the motions without any passion. Here’s one theory as to why: it’s hard to feel or inspire passion when you personally feel uninspired and neglectfully passion-less.
I understand that giftedness and executive function skills are not synonymous. Yet, it continues to amaze me that we can have this deep politically strategic conversation in one minute, and the next he can barely get himself out the door. But, it is partially specifically because he can have these deep and strategic thoughts that the day to day executive functioning skills can lapse.
