Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel sorry for some of the children on Child Genius?

135 replies

Laymizzrarb · 27/07/2014 21:25

I felt so sorry for Aaliyah when she made a mistake. She looked totally crestfallen. And the mother wasn't helping, telling the cameras her child had made a 'stupid mistake' . She's a little girl for goodness sake.

OP posts:
Baddderz · 31/07/2014 18:42

But will as get involved!?
No.
Because the families are all middle class.
No abuse going on there obviously!!
Awful :(
Poor children.

Timetoask · 31/07/2014 18:44

I watched the second eposide on iplayer last night. The child that I felt most sorry for was Tudor's sister.
I am no expert, but I think she will grow up with a huge inferiority complex. I couldn't believe what her mother said to her after she had to leave the competition "do you forgive yourself?" For WHAT??? Its just a contest, there is nothing to forgive. Poor girl.

mignonette · 31/07/2014 18:51

Knitted exactly. No decent psychotherapist or psychologist would be so supremely confident in the veracity of their methods. Good parenting by definition surely involves humility and a willingness to admit to mistakes.

KnittedJimmyChoos · 31/07/2014 18:57

Yes Mignonette. I agree. We all of us in everything should be able to be fluid and keep coming back to things, and re evaluating what we do and so on. I hate rigidity of any kind.

Purpleflamingos · 31/07/2014 19:02

Alliyah will be on here in a few years stressing about going NC with her parents. Her mum may be profoundly gifted, but her daughter is just a clever child. Lay off the 4+ hours of tutoring after school!

I keep looking at Tudor's dad. His wife seems to be following his lead but he's so cold and distant. I would genuinely like to know about his childhood and what made his so emotionless and cold towards his own beautiful children.

Rubiyat and Eleanor seem lovely.

NickNackNooToYou · 31/07/2014 19:06

I'd like to see how Tudor's Dad got on with the questions. The man is a cold fool and Tudor needs a huge hug Sad

MrsJoeDolan · 31/07/2014 19:13

I don't know what type of psychologist Aaliyah's mum is. But clinical psych, counselling psych and educational psych are protected titles. She is none of these.

A PhD in psychology is not the same as clinical training.

NoArmaniNoPunani · 31/07/2014 19:17

Still let her do the programme, though. They are all, without exception, as bad as each other.

I don't think they are. Aaliyah and Tudor's parents were by far the worst. Even the piano playing boy's mum hugged him when he was out. Tudor didn't seem to get any love from his parents.

mignonette · 31/07/2014 19:24

I think she is a psychotherapist which is not quite the same. Easier to be a very ineffective one of those.....

AngieBolen · 31/07/2014 19:35

OK, I'm prepared to be shot for this...but if Aliyah's mother is so clever...why don't they live in a bigger house? I know there could be lots of reasons like they chose to spend their money on international travel, but I was always led to believe that if you were so smart you would grow up to have a job which paid £££££.

As an adult, I do realise things aren't that simple, but I can't help thinking they live in a small house for people so driven.

tenderbuttons · 31/07/2014 19:44

Ah but raw intelligence doesn't automatically mean success - it has much more to do with determination, emotional intelligence and so on. I know which one of DD's friends I'd back for success, and she's not the cleverest child of them all. But having seen her, aged two, sit in the corner of the room and persevere until she could put her own shoes on, I'm sure she will be able to do whatever she wants in life unlike me

NoArmaniNoPunani · 31/07/2014 19:48

They live in quite a pricey part of Brighton Angie. That house is probably worth more than twice mine

fuzzpig · 31/07/2014 19:56

That and the fact they have been paying private school fees presumably - in the first episode they showed Aliyah in her private school didn't they?

MrsJoeDolan · 01/08/2014 08:21

I naively assumed that kids would be on scholarships because they are so academic?

KnittedJimmyChoos · 01/08/2014 11:40

Ah but raw intelligence doesn't automatically mean success and success doesn't necessarily equal Zanado mansions.

If my dh and I won lottery there is no way we could live in huge house, we would be too scared! Would be modest small ish house for us with plenty of other trappings and maybe lots of other small houses world wide.

LaurieMarlow · 01/08/2014 11:55

Aliyah's parents are both academics and academic salaries aren't particularly high. Plus, it takes years to get an academic career off the ground, delaying the process of saving for a deposit. Also, Brighton is pricey.

But in my experience the cleverest people often end up in jobs that aren't particularly lucrative (i.e research, academia).

mignonette · 01/08/2014 11:55

Success is measured in so many ways and kindness is often mistaken for weakness.

I do not see much kindness in some of these parents and that is what a child remembers.

Original poster
Laymizzrarb · 01/08/2014 13:41

For goodness sake Aaliyah's mother - let her make a loomband key ring, dance around to some music with her friends, while away an hour gazing up at the clouds. She won't be a little girl much longer....

OP posts:
KnittedJimmyChoos · 01/08/2014 13:48

She won't be a little girl much longer....

this is whats so sad,...what is she gaining by all this study, what advantage is it going to give her in life?

KnittedJimmyChoos · 01/08/2014 13:49

sorry and yet the price she is paying with her precious childhood

Baddderz · 01/08/2014 14:46

I am reminded if Ruth Lawrence.
Afaik she has very little to do with her father now...

AngieBolen · 01/08/2014 18:33

The juice thing has been bothering me.

Surely you need the fiber as well as just the juice from a fruit/vegetable?

Oh, and I once did the blueberry smoothie for breakfast thing with DS. Totally didn't work. DS's score in the test he was taking was shockingly low.

KingJoffreysBloodshotEye · 01/08/2014 19:29

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

fuzzpig · 01/08/2014 21:12

It's the growing up too fast thing that makes me so gobsmacked with Aliyah's parents.

I know what it's like to be abused - so does DH. And I get that you want to undo all the hurt you experienced with your own child (TBH it's part of the reason I rushed into having DCs so young - I was desperate to prove to myself I could break the cycle. I've accepted how wrong that was, though of course I'm ecstatic I have my amazing DCs!). I know Shoshana wants to give Aliyah the best possible life she can, and it's coming from love. But being abused makes you grow up damn fast when you are forced into sex or beaten up by the people who are supposed to love you. You don't get a childhood. As a parent my biggest aim is to make damn sure my children get a childhood. A real one, not one when they are turned into mini adults who don't know how to play. It baffles me that Aliyah is being so pushed into adult pursuits when to me, all I'd want is to let her be truly young while she could :(

Sorry for the rant.

furryleopard · 02/08/2014 10:17

I enjoyed the mum with the piano son's technique though for the competition, it was clever, but she should have told him to pass on all the long questions in the second round straight away and I think he would have gone through.

I found Tudor and his sister very uncomfortable viewing.