Living With Live Wires

Many of us have grown up in times and places that did not acknowledged creativity, gifts & talents in children. In the wider picture of history and culture, giftedness still seems to be a new burgeoning field in education. The awareness is increasing at amazingly fast rates, but progress has been more recent. It is rare when the healthcare, parenting and family life literature mention characteristics of highly creative & bright children or the importance of identifying these children.

Due to the tremendous parenting challenges that are often encountered with highly sensitive and intense children, parents tend to do their own research to find answers.  More often than not, parents hide the facts about their children’s abilities from friends, family and healthcare professionals for fear of being branded as one of those “bragging parents.”  This likely ostracizes them and their children from social experience with friends and family.

The lucky parents find local support groups for parents with bright & talented kids. In these groups, they are free to talk about their children, their unique abilities and get suggestions to support the special emotional & social needs. They find great relief and solace in finding a group of people that understand what they are going through and that their situation is challenging.  This is crucial for families who live in a world that often doesn’t acknowledge, accept, or appreciate the needs of gifted & children. The support system is crucial for those that need to advocate for their child to get their academic, social and emotional needs met in a world that sometimes doesn’t have a place for them.

Tony and I have been fortunate to be a part of an amazing support group for parents with gifted kids in Minnesota. The group we encountered when our children turned 5 years old is MCGT, Minnesota Counsel for the Gifted and Talented, a parent organization. We chose to home school our children at the time, and received invaluable help from the homeschool chapter of this organization.

We continue to be involved and contribute our time. Tony has served as president of the home school chapter and I taught a class at the home school co-op sponsored by chapter. We have the deepest gratitude for this organization and the parents that volunteer their time to help others. This support group has been instrumental in our lives to help us with the special needs that arise on a regular basis.

The support, resources and encouragement we have received from MCGT became our inspiration for this website. There are many locations across the country that do not have local organizations, services or resources for families with intense & sensitive children. We seek to fill, in a small part, that gap by developing an online version of what we have been fortunate enough to experience on a local level.

In addition, I am devoted, as a family therapist, to serve the needs of bright & creative children and their families. I know that intense & sensitive children are not the only focus in many families. But, the existence of intensities & sensitivities in the children usually means there are parents with similar issues. Oftentimes, the challenges that our children experience begin echoing our own childhood experiences. This often provides deep motivation for us, as parents, to understand our children in new ways and to find resources that will helpus create a family culture that will nurture each person as unique.