There is a moment that the parent of a gifted kid always hits.
That moment where they realize their child is smarter than them.
It happened to Paul Jobs. Paul loved to work in his garage and Steve loved to be around Paul. Steve was working on fixing up a carbon microphone. Paul told him it would never work without an amplifier. Steve knew his father was wrong. He showed him a microphone working without an amplifier and his dad was blown away.
That moment left an impact on Steve’s life. He realized his father didn’t know everything. He started to realize that he knew more than his parents.
Most parents aren’t ready for that. We know that our kids will know more things than us about some topics. But we don’t expect them to be smarter than us.
The first instinct is to push back on the child. Try to show how smart we are as parents. That’s the ego talking.
Paul Jobs didn’t do that.
He and Clara recognized that Steve was special and built their lives around it. They found ways to keep challenging him, even if they couldn’t keep up with him.
Jobs appreciated his parents for this. He felt understood by them.
To accept that your child is smarter than you at an early age is hard. As a parent, the job isn’t to keep up with our kids, it’s to help them become the best version of themselves.
Most parents can’t do this. They hedge too much.
Paul and Clara Jobs let Steve become his own person.