The problem with bragging about our grandkids is that we’re all living longer so our friends and family will be around to see that our five year old who reads at a 4th grade level is now twenty seven and still reads at a 4th grade level. Yes, fellow grandma boomers, it may be your grandkid who will peak in nursery school.
Besides the embarrassment of our little angels not living up to their potential, I swear I’d prefer that my grandkids be smart enough, not genius smart. I’ll go out on a limb here and suggest that pint size geniuses are annoying weirdos. Proof: TV sitcom “Young Sheldon.”
If our three year old can double the tax for the waiter’s tip before we can whip out our credit card, we feel proud, but we also feel dumb and I know from experience that dumb feelings linger.
Precocious kids are even worse than genius kids because they’re not even particularly smart. They flaunt their juiced up personalities to make us think they’re smart. I guess, that in itself is smart, but not book smart, it’s street smart which is odd since they’re four and they’re not allowed off the driveway.
My point is precocious kids are like miniature used car salesmen…crafty. They’re only smart in a smart aleck way. Somehow they manage to look down on us even though they only come up to our waist. Really smart is the grandkid who’s smart enough to make us feel smarter. They pretend to look up to us because they know “Grandma, I learn so much from you!” gets our diamond studs and “I don’t want to be on Grandma’s team because she always loses” ends up with the Canal Street knock offs.
(From a Chapter in “Some Kids Peak in Nursery School & other Wisecracks from a Grandma Boomer.”)
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