This week on Global #gtchat on Twitter powered by Texas Association for Gifted and Talented http://txgifted.org/gtchat  we will be discussing “When extended family members don’t get giftedness” and criticize every aspect of parenting gifted children.

Thinking about the topic made me think about the Tweet family’s Great Aunt Hashtag. Great Aunt Hashtag was undermining Tweet and Retweet’s confidence in their parenting http://www.giftedresources.org/jo/blog/?p=3190  by criticizing Retweet’s nest cleaning and food preparation methods http://www.giftedresources.org/jo/blog/?p=3021 and was completely unsympathetic with Tweetelle’s dietary concerns http://www.giftedresources.org/jo/blog/?p=3168
 She did not recognize and value Tweetelle’s art work. http://www.giftedresources.org/jo/blog/?p=3021

She certainly did not understand the Tweetlets sensitivities and overexcitabilities and accused Retweet of over stimulating them; although she was unwittingly contributing to the stress levels  and causing Tweetelle to have nightmares http://www.giftedresources.org/jo/blog/?p=3140 
She believed that all Tweetlets should be seen and not heard http://www.giftedresources.org/jo/blog/?p=3021 and should be treated as they were ‘in HER day’ and kept quiet by filling them with food and singing banal nesty rhymes to them!

She tried to influence family decisions regarding the Tweetlets’ choice of school http://www.giftedresources.org/jo/blog/?p=3543  and definitely did not approve or support their decision to homeschool http://www.giftedresources.org/jo/blog/?p=3742  

To Great Aunt Hashtag the Tweetlets seemed so strange that she suggested maybe they were cuckoo chicks which had been put into the Tweet family nest. http://www.giftedresources.org/jo/blog/?p=3742

We have seen the effects of Great Aunt Hashtag’s interference but we have not really seen any suggestions for deflecting it or coping with it.
Tweet and Retweet are sure to find some helpful suggestions during the Twitter  #gtchat session.

Gtchat provides an outlet for the gifted community to network and discuss relevant topics each week. During the 24 hour interval including a recent week’s chat, over 100 participants posted tweets from 25 states in the U.S. and from 12 countries. See http://globalgtchatpoweredbytagt.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/fostering-parent-awareness-and-creating-community/

To read summaries and transcripts of past  #gtchat sessions see the Global #gtchat blog at http://globalgtchatpoweredbytagt.wordpress.com/
and to continue the discussions on Facebook see http://www.facebook.com/#!/gtchatmod?fref=ts