Worry, thy name is Gifted Child

Oldest worries about many, many, MANY things.  Here's a really small example from tonight.

Me:  "Oldest, I still think you could write a funny story about Scutter (our Hamster) escaping last night."

Oldest: "Oh, no Mommy.  If I do that, my teacher might show it in circle time and if she did that, then the kids would pay more attention to me and if they did that, then they might want to play with me on the playground and if they wanted to do that, then they would all love me more, and then they would be calling my name on the playground trying to play with me and I just couldn't have that."

HUH?  (Isn't that a good thing?)

Me:  "Why not?"

Oldest:  "Well, I just like to keep my stories private, in my head, because that's where they're safe and none of those things will happen as long as I don't write them down."

Me:  "Maybe we should make a plan and talk to your teacher about not sharing your private stories in circle.  Then you wouldn't have to worry about everything you just mentioned."

Oldest:  "Oh, I don't have to do that, Mommy.  My teacher never singles people out in circle like that, she's never done that.  I was just saying IN CASE SHE EVER DOES, that's why I don't want to write that story in my journal, because I would hate for all of that stuff to happen."

HUH?

Me:  "Well, if it's concerning you, maybe you should write it at home - you know how much you like to write."

Oldest:  "Oh, GREAT!  Great idea, Mommy.  I'm glad we had this talk."

Me:  "Me too, honey."

That one, she's an ocean of mystery.  Sometimes it blows me away the things she worries about.  And typically if something's worrying her, "bad" behavior tends to follow (see my post entitled  The Post Where I Remember to be Thankful).  So I'm glad we had this little talk tonight.  You never know how much a little time with your gifted child can save you hours of "corrective" time down the road.