to hate myself for my huge gaps in knowledge I have?

[emkana]

Always wanted to be the kind of mother who could explain everything.

But come across so many situations where I know I should know something, have a verrrrrrry vague idea, but can't really give a proper explanation!

Eg today we came across Daedalus, knew I had heard the name, knew it's somebody from Greek mythology, but other than that...

whereas my mother was always a walking encyclopedia who could tell you all the details (obv didn't stick in my brain though)

apologies for inadequate wording of thread title [feel dumb emoticon]

exactly emkana....

the words kids need to hear IMO are 'oh I don't know, let's look it up' - much more likely to remember it if you look at it yourself, esp if parents do it with you

one of the things i think my parents got really right was the constant looking stuff up, most meals we had reference books on the table by the end

oh btw YABU to hate yourself - of course

daedalus? Father of Icarus, made the wings with which Icarus flew to close to the sun.

Emkana, you need to get an iPhone. Anything you don't know you can just google on the spot! :-)

I learnt that from Hercules in Disney channel

it's also the name of a starship in the StarGate Atlantis series.

No need to hate yourself at all.

YABU to hate yourself.

Learning is a lifelong challenge, and you can learn alongside your DCs.

Google is a wonderful thing .

No one knows everything and God knows no one knows everything that your DC's will ask. Sometimes it is appropriate to look it up yourself, sometimes it is appropriate to tell your DC's that you don't know and you all look it up together.

Teaching children that they should research and how to is teaching them a great thing that will stand them in good stead forever.

Oh, I think it'd be so demoralizing to have a mum who constantly knew everything!

teaching them how to research is also a skill you can be proud to pass on

Best thing is to know yourself and teach your children the same I reckon.

maktaitai has it spot on.

I think it is good to admit that you don't know and then say you will find out. This way your dcs will know it is OK to not know something, maybe something you haven't learnt from your know-it-all mum!

Know it all parents are a pain in their own way! DP's Dad knows everything...and is almost always right.

I think you can use this to your advantage for you and kids to find out together.

Agree that teaching children how to look stuff up is A Really Good Thing. As is admitting you don't know everything.

Also, aren't you working in your second language? Sorry, don't know which language you speak to the children, but surely living in England makes it bit more complicated - if ds asked me 'who is Diogene' (can't do accent over 'e') it would take a while for my brain to catch up that in English it's pronounced Diogenes*. And I've forgotten which one he was anyone - the one up a pole, maybe?)

• Only Greek philosopher I know in a second language as we had a crappy set book at school about Diogene the petit saussicon chien.

Google love...one learns more everyday and if not you are probably dead

Just looked it up and no, Diogenes was the one in a tub. Also intellectually humiliated Plato, wiki says.

I take comfort in believing that every parent will have huge gaps because they have forgotten things or have never really known/understood them.

Loads of things I don't know about and have no interest in ever understanding (related for instance to how machines work). The other day dd asked me how white chocolate is made and I honestly had no idea. I had to google it.

I was shocked when I found it it isn't actually chocolate. Given I hadn't eaten a Milky Bar since 1979 I'd never thought to check...

oh it's not chocolate? Off to google!

well I had been kidding myself that somehow it was not so fattening (!) or something. Seems it is much worse for you than dark chocolate.

Wait till they are onto advanced maths emkana. I'm going into hiding when that time comes

YABU to hate yourself - and as everyone else has said, going and looking things up is far more fun.

I have a Trivial Pursuit brain - it knows all sorts of random stuff but wouldn't have remembered who Daedalus was without looking it up - but Google is so very useful! And I have books about all sorts of random useful stuff too that I could direct small children to - these are good to acquire.

Edam, thank you for throwing me that lifeline, but I saw Daedalus in writing, so can't blame different pronunciation unfortunately!

Be honest and never be ashamed to admit you are unsure..make it a journey for you and your children...

white chocolate should definitely not be called chocolate - it's mostly sugar and cocoa butter, with no other cocoa solids and so has none of the benefits of the antioxidants and other good things in (especially) dark chocolate. I dislike it intensely.

Ah you see I was very good at maths in school... got a 1+ in my maths Abitur exam [boasting]...

so hoping that I won't have forgotten it all!!!