to think its bizarre to call your own child a genius

[givemeaclue]

thread about a thread so feel free to flame me - but honestly surely thats taking the whole G&T thing tooo far?

YABU. My DC are both geniuses (Genii?). Aren't everyones?

Well if their child is a genius, it's hardly unreasonable.

If my child was a spade, I'd call him a spade.

Iyswim?

who determines whether someone is a genius or not?

My dd2 is absolutely, undoubtedly a genius - in my opinion. I obviously don't expect others to agree, however :)

Yabu. My gorgeous pfb is a genius. Of course,he doesn't do much yet,but he will

no problems with calling my DS a genius. I just wouldn't say it to anyone other than DH.

oh, and to the CM. but then I preface it with the words 'evil' or 'criminal'. DS is, um, quite hard work at times.

I have rarely met a parent who's DCs were NOT genius!

Kveta, I remember saying to DH that DS2 was going to be a criminal mastermind That's a sort of genius, right?

Chickens yep! my DS is almost certainly going to use his genius for evil means! He has spent the past 2.4 years keeping us awake all the bloody time, so god knows what he will achieve as an adult.

havent read the thread which you refer to but have never understood why it is considered such bad form to express positives about your child.

It seems to be perfectly ok to complain to all and sundry about how naughty they are, what bad sleepers they are, how they never eat etc etc, but whoa betide the parent that exclaims over how well their child are doing in Maths or what an excellent reader they are.

Just becuase they are proud (or even a little bit deluded) and want to tell the world about it doesnt mean they are suggesting that your child lacking in some way.

My DD is just about to turn two and i personally think she is exceptionally bright and has a vocubulary and level of understanding that at times blows me away. I am bursting with pride over her achievement and probably am a bit deluded about her status as a future nobel prize winner but i am her mother and frankly if i dont blow her trumpet, who else will?

YANBU it is bad mannered to boast .Full stop.

Thank you lynlynnicebutdim you have said exactly my thoughts. I woud like to know the definition of *genius' though, can anyone help?

i call DD a genius every time she does something new.
yesterday she was a genius for touching one hand with the other

Well, ForeverProcrastinating, apparently there is no standard definition of "genius", though according to Wikipedia, one psychologist decided it should refer to anyone with an IQ over 180, and another said it should refer to anyone with an IQ over 140 (which I think is about two percent of the population). I have actually come across people who say, straight-faced, that they have a "genius IQ", to which I can only snort with derision. If we have to use the word "genius", then keep it for the Einsteins of the world, don't devalue it by using it to refer to people who are good at IQ tests but have little else to show for it.

Why bizarre? I can think of much worse things that people call their children.

I refer to ds as boy genius in a lighthearted jokey way sometimes, mainly because I still find it hard to believe that I gave birth to a an very intelligent child. But then that's because when I was at school I was a typical dosser who couldn't be bothered to work, scribbled most of my homework at registration and is generally not all that clever. DS spent all of primary school at the top of his class without having to make any effort and he's now doing very well at a SS grammar school when I struggled to even do half of an 11+ practice paper.

The aspergers probably has something to do with it though. If I want to call my genius child a genius, then I will.

I was reading an article recently about that poor MI6 agent who was found dead in his flat.

He was referred throughout as a Maths Genius. I think the article said he had done Maths GCSE at about 9, and gone to University to study maths at the age of 15 !

I think "Maths Genius" was a fair description of someone like that.

What Chickens said!

Genius is a word that describes someone who is gifted (not to be confused with the catch-all gifted and talented, which is not the same thing).

But personally, I would only use the word genius for a gifted person who has actually put their giftedness to use. Usually this would be an adult gifted person.

My brother was exceptionally clever as a child. Don't think he'd be classed as a genius exactly but he was very intelligent. My mum always downplayed it. She didn't want other mums thinking he was any different to their kids, and she didn't want my brother to be treated any differently or to think he was 'better' than anyone else. Fast forward 30 years and he is married, has a great job, a nice home, has lots of sociable hobbies and is very popular.

Someone else of the same age was always told how extraordinarily clever he was as a child, put into extra maths lessons for gifted kids etc, and the whole community was told how marvellous this child was. The family ended up in counselling because of the way his behaviour took a turn for the worse, he is single, lives with his parents, and finds it very hard to have conversations with people as he was not taught to let others have a turn to speak.

I'm planning on raising any kids I have the way my brother and I were raised, however clever they might be.

I also think that very few people are actual geniuses. Very clever yes, but not geniuses.

Kittenboy2011 is a total genius. He is clearly superior to every other baby on the planet. A quick look around the baby clinic at weigh-in time shows him to be cuter, clever, more advanced, better behaved, sweeter and just more amazing than anyone elses baby. Everything he does is fascinating. And he smells amazing.

I thought everyone thought that about their children :)

If he is in fact a genius why is it so terrible to talk about it?
Because the fact of his genius is presumably his adoring mummy's not very objective opinion rather than actual fact, perhaps?