And I was absolutely right. I don't even want to think about the damage that could have been done to my kidneys if I hadn't said anything. My mother went justifiably ballistic at the hospital administration after that.

Wow. Just. Wow. Your mother had every right to be ballistic.

Kind of reminds me of the scene in Catch-22 where the nurses (purposefully) go in and switch the med IV bag with the catheter output bag!!

I never thought of it as showing off; if someone says something incorrect, and no one corrects them, then I do. Because -- well, shouldn't people know correct information?

I do think I come off as a know-it-all when I do this but if I don't they'll go on having the wrong information and we can't have that, can we?

Oh. Well, I do kind of like that, too. But my "need to be right" isn't a need to be first; just a need to, well, be right.

I understand, and feel the same way. It's another art form to learn - the "how to correct with grace." I am still trying to learn this one. Funnily enough, I've learned a lot from my dog-trainer on this one. She puts me so at ease that I never get defensive when she's correcting my approach to the dogs. She always prefaces (and I've stolen this from her, now that I am sharing some of her insights with my friends who have dogs) things with "I know it seems to make no sense...but" or "it's so funny that our instincts about this are so counterproductive when it comes to dogs..."

I used to do that. Because I think I thought somebody'd leave me in the desert if I wasn't the quickest thinking spaz on the planet. Also, it took me years to decode "Die, smartmouthed bitch, die," looks from groups. (I think the "just jealous" thing is about the worst thing you can tell your grade-grubber kid. I am continually surprised that I even narrowly, escaped being the biggest bitch on the planet in terms of "Look how smart and retain-y I am.")

I sometimes get into YOU ARE WRONG ON THE INTERNET!!! mental loops. Not so much because I need to be right, but because I need to show them how WRONG THEY ARE BEING.

I accept that this is not logical or rational. Usually, I don't actually say anything. I just think it real loud.

There is no mindfuck quite like being special needs AND gifted. That constant pendulum between "You're great and special and inspiring." and "Fuckin' freak," is why Billy Walsh makes me blush.

I was just trying to figure out how to say something along those lines. I am still angry, over 20 years later, that there were 'smart tables' and 'stupid tables' in my class at primary school, and that I ended up on the middle table because I was top of the class in English and bottom of the class in maths. Grr. Mrs Ings, I hope you're not still doing that to kids.

I sometimes get into YOU ARE WRONG ON THE INTERNET!!! mental loops.

Someone is always being WRONG ON THE INTERNET. I feel like the Batman of Internet-wrongness.

Uh, guys, wasn't this discussion started by someone who was worried that her kid *wasn't* reading? Maybe the recurring "I was a spontaneous early reader and/or misunderstood super-nerd" conversation is a little insensitive under the circumstances?

To counterbalance, my husband learned to read in school (like, 1st-2nd grade), was a good but not stellar student (he was the B+/A- guy) and now has a PhD in engineering.

P.M., I am pretty sure that's way different than always wanting to be the first to answer a question in class.

Wrong people on the Internet are a cowardly and superstitious lot.