Why does proud = smug?

I have a clever child.

There, I've said it. Cue metaphorical tumbleweed rolling across the blogosphere. It feels like an admission. Owning up to some kind of dirty secret; because for some reason, it is just not the done thing to say you have uncommonly bright offspring, let alone be proud of it. This makes me sad. It seems we can only be overtly proud of our kids when it comes to how much they eat or how well they sleep - anything more and you run the risk of being labelled 'smug' or worse, 'pushy'.

The latter was the accusation thrown at me a while ago. Not directly of course; oh no, behind my back. Our daughter, now aged 26 months, has shown an interest in 'knowing stuff' since she was old enough to support her own head and point at things. Before she could talk, her days consisted largely of pointing at things and going 'gah', then looking at you expectantly until you told her what it was. Words and letters have always been a favourite, and by the age of 20 months she recognised the entire alphabet, and could recite it by 22 months. It is almost impossible to quench her thirst for knowledge. By 12 months, asking her to point at things in a book ('where's the red car?' that kind of thing) was an easy peasy task for her, and by 15 months she could recognise and point out nearly 30 different species of bird (this now extends to umpteen species of dinosaur, more than I even knew existed, as well as insects, mammals and reptiles)

Apparently, 'not letting kids be kids' and 'forcing them to read text books', as we were so accused of doing is little short of child cruelty in some peoples minds, it seems. Just for the record, we have done neither of these things; we have only ever taken her lead and responded to her interests. Since a young age, I've been aware that Flo is going to be pretty intelligent, and have never really spoken much about her development, other than to her doting grandparents and uncles. But sometimes you're so proud of your little person, you can't help but share your awe. So to then hear that THAT is what folks have said about you is upsetting.

So, I rarely speak about her achievements any more. I have to keep my pride in check, and this saddens me. I take no credit for who she is and the aptitudes she has. She is her own person; I have merely passed on 50% or so of my genes to her; so when I want to tell the world how amazing I think she is, I'm not saying "hey, look at me, what  GREAT parent I am!" I'm saying "How amazing is this little human being! I love her SO much!" All we have done as parents, is respond to that in which she had shown an interest, and 'knowing everything there is to know, as soon as is humanly possible' appears to be her aim. She is currently teaching herself to read (she already recognises quite a few logos and her own name) and will sit with a book whispering the letters in each word to herself, totally unaided by either of us. She can do basic subtraction too (she is VERY proud of herself when she does this!) yet despite this love for 'academic' pastimes, she is equally happy running, throwing, kicking, climbing, painting, drawing and pretend playing. We are letting her be a kid. The kid she wants to be; and if that means letting her be clever, then so be it.

Oh, and she's a great eater. And a pretty decent sleeper nowadays too, just in case you're interested in what really matters.