#life isn’t linear but I have to connnssstantly tell myself that

[oneknightlight]

I had a thought about gifted kid burnout and this is a bit long so scroll if you want! Buuuut in any case.

When you grow up the “gifted kid” you tend to adopt a mentality of perfectionism. Then you live and breathe that perfectionism for a while, and you start to do this thing where if something can’t be perfect you won’t do it. It becomes extremely hard to understand that you SHOULD do things even if you only make small progress, or it doesn’t turn out good. If you don’t adapt to that, you start running into serious roadblocks the moment you’re out of highschool. (‘I’m scared of getting a job what if I’m not perfect at it’ or ‘I’m procrastinating my drivers test because what if I make a mistake’) you unfortunately becomes an adult who struggles and has to relearn how to live.

Which leads me to my next point: I wish schools and parents would stop sticking a “gifted” label on kids who are exceptional academically, because what immediately happens thereafter is adults stop putting as much effort into raising the child. They think, ‘it’s ok on its own, it’s mature for it’s age.’ Which has challenging consequences for the child. when you stop guiding them because they display academic success, you end up stunting their ability to do just that. They stop learning, because there’s no guide, and they start raising themselves. The consequence is an adult who is behind their peers, who was not given the tools and knowledge their peers were equipped with (they were too “smart” to need them.), and was encouraged to base their worth on what they could accomplish. The domino effect, is that if you were starved of tools and guidance, you fall academically behind your peers, but if your self worth is your accomplishments, then your self worth is now low because you can’t keep up with everyone. Or, you keep up just barely and develop imposter syndrome. Gifted kids turn into depressed adults who struggle with self worth 99% of the time.

Summary: cut the gifted kid bullshit, and raise every child because they’re children. Stop looking for ways to nope out of having to nurture kids.