No, he does have to start to work harder in school. It is very frustrating when I have spent a lot of time working on his reading skills for him to turn around and tell me that he's not worried, he'll be able to read when he's grown-up without putting in any work now. Just like he'll be fluent in French, play 4 different instruments, drive a car and all the rest - he doesn't see that you have to work hard for your rewards.

And the fact that he says "can't do it" and "don't know" a lot at school to stay at the same level, which he gleefully tells me is "easy" and dashes through his reading books without any effort - why would I not be upset about that? (I have bought books the next stage up and he can read them fairly fluently already, he just can't be bothered to have to do it for school.)

I get that. I was only posting about the last sentence. About slowly accepting he isn't as smart as you wanted . I didn't know If that was a joke or not.