Within the small social heirarchy that is Mrs. C's afternoon kindergarten class, I have discovered that I am the parent of "the child who reads." Not just the child who reads, but the child who reads Chapter Books in kindergarten. At Parent Literacy Night, the teacher pointed me out to the other parents as the mom of Carden, who reads at least 12 levels beyond anyone else in his class. At a parent reading volunteer meeting she announced to everyone that all the kids are supposed to point to the words as they read them, "except for Carden since he's so far ahead." A dad of one of the other kids in the class sat behind me at a basketball game and pointed to Carden reading a chapter book and said to his son, "you need to be reading books like that."
The funny thing about all this that I want to crawl under the rug, or make Carden put away his books when others are watching. Magic Treehouse contraband. I have to stop myself from responding to his teacher's compliments with, "yeah, but isn't his handwriting terrible?!" to try and even the score.
Of course as a parent you're proud of your kids and you want them to do well, but I'm perplexed why I'm embarassed by his success. Fear of making the other kids feel bad? Fear of being a show-off? Fear of being the annoying parent who brags about her child's exceptional skills? Have to think about this one some more.
1 comment:
I totally know how you feel. My oldest was was a precocious reader. I distinctly remember her Sunbeam teacher coming to me saying, "Did you know Emma can read? She's only three. And she knows where China is on the map!" How are you supposed to respond to that? "Oh really? I had no idea she could read!"
I hate things like that. My reason for being embarrassed is not wanting to be an annoying mom that brags about my kids and not wanting my kid to get a big head.
But then again, when I would read aloud to her (at 3) I used to tell her to quit reading ahead because it annoyed me.
Now my other kids tend to the other extreme with reading. So I get annoying comments on both sides.
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