"Wow, can't believe you just had a baby - you're so thin, you look fantastic."

This after I had just discussed with an acquaintence that DS was born 3 months premature and was in the NICU, and I had been hospitalized with complications from C-Section (which resulted in follow-on abdominal surgery and was unable to eat for 10 days).

This is no joke, but I will say, the stress of worrying about your severely premature baby is a great way to lose weight, if that kind of thing interests you...

Hmm, that's so interesting about you're child's eating issues. All my son will eat is ceasar salad with steak. It's killing me!

My child is gifted and has unique needs and faces different challenges than typically developing kids. Parents of typically developing kids say "all kids are gifted". Sure, all kids have gifts and my child is no better or more special than any other child. My child is not destined for greatness simply because he has a label and I don't like that people assume this is what I think. But, saying that all children are gifted really disregards his needs as an atypically developing child.

I end up having to hide his "label" and accomplishments from even close friends and family because it's met with open hostility. I have to curb my response to strangers commenting on a unique trait so that I don't inadvertently put my child down in an effort to be humble and avoid hostility. I can't be proud of my child out in the open and I'm sure he is affected by this.

I've been told he doesn't deserve accomodation or that other children deserve to have their needs met more than my child. I've been told that I'm a hot housing parent who is trying to make up for my own insecurities by pushing my kid too hard. I've been told that my kid isn't special (who says that? Aren't all kids special?). I've been told that I shouldn't worry about accomodating him because all kids even out by 3rd grade anyways (sure, if you don't meet a child's needs they aren't going to progress to their potential). I've been told that I don't belong here. I've been given numerous examples of "gifted" people who end up socially challenged, miserable, underemployed, and angry adults.

I know that our challenges pale in comparison to many of your challenges but it's still hard nontheless.

Worst thing I ever heard (happened before I was born, told to my mother after my older brother suffered severe brain damage in an accident in the late 1960s): "The sins of the father shall be visited upon the sons."