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Original poster

To think that having children makes you less intelligent??

40 replies

DabblesInDestruction · 03/12/2007 20:16

Seriously..!

Having goen back to study after number 2 I am finding it so difficult, impossible even, to do stuff I could have done in my sleep pre-children!! (not that I know what sleep is anymore...)

I have NEVER struggled academically at anything. Now it just doesnt sink in, I just cant even grasp basics....

Do the little ones steal our brain cells during the baby making process? Is it lack of sleep? ...or is it just me???

OP posts:
Original poster
DabblesInDestruction · 03/12/2007 20:17

Am seriously considering chucking academia in and just having another baby, as thats all I feel fit to do....

OP posts:
CarmenerryChristmas · 03/12/2007 20:17

It is just habit, you will be back in the saddle soon.

pantoinghousewife · 03/12/2007 20:18

Lack of sleep, there was a study recently that showed that in the long term, people gained intellectually from having children.

SenoraPostrophe · 03/12/2007 20:20

it is sleep, I'm sure of it. the pregnancy hormones muck about with your memory a bit too, but it comes back. at least, I think it does. I can't remember how good my memory was before!

EmsMum · 03/12/2007 20:21

Well, yes actually they do steal some of your brain! But I have also read (IIRC somewhere like New Scientist) that mothers adapt and can end up better than before. Though it is quite possible that I have not Remembered Correctly!

I also oddly enough found I actually could do some quite complicated things (fixing bugs in other peoples horrendously convoluted code) while seriously sleep deprived and feeling like a zombie.

SleeplessInTheStaceym11House · 03/12/2007 20:21

i lost brain cells when i was pregnant and have yet to regain them, studying helps tho, keep it up it will be easier!!

SenoraPostrophe · 03/12/2007 20:22

that's as maybe, emsmum, but I bet you couldn't remember where you put your cup of tea before you started looking for those bugs!

poppy34 · 03/12/2007 20:37

think it is meant to take something like a year to readjust. And there is definitely something in coming back to study that is just so hard.

clam · 03/12/2007 20:52

That and age. My brain is so full nowadays now I have to accommodate 2 dcs' agendas as well as my own and dh's that things are bound to slip. And it doesn't help having to remember 12-digit phone numbers and 101 different PIN nos and passwords. I remember when a phone number was just 4 numbers long...... And as for people's names! People suggest writing things down, but how can you say to someone you've just met,"sorry, but you're so insignificant in my life that I'm writing down your name because I'm bound to forget it otherwise"

seb1 · 03/12/2007 20:56

MY DH always seems to look at me like this these days as opposed to at my brainpower when we met when I was at uni.

Original poster
DabblesInDestruction · 03/12/2007 20:57

lol

OP posts:
Eliza2 · 03/12/2007 20:59

I had a very good reply to this thread...but I've forgotten what it was...

StarlightMcKenzie · 03/12/2007 21:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

gigglewitchyouamerryxmas · 03/12/2007 21:03

ohh we must be getting old.
i got a first class postgrad degree before having my three wonderful DC
I still work in management but even a first class train ticket stretches me these days
having babies rots ya brain cells. I am evidence of that.

MadamePlatypus · 03/12/2007 21:06

I think lack of sleep permanently damages your brain. I couldn't remember what an escalator was called today.

MadamePlatypus · 03/12/2007 21:08

Also, my braincells implode when I have to answer questions like "why don't trains stop for cars at level crossings" and "what would happen if there wasn't any sky" and "why do grasshoppers like grass", and then I answer the question to the best of my abilities, and I get the killer response "no, mummy, but why"

handlemecarefully · 03/12/2007 21:09

I think it is down to being preoccupied and 'elsewhere' in your head (usually some child related concern)

gigglewitchyouamerryxmas · 03/12/2007 21:13

go and lol at the geography quiz questions thread. i just did
ROFL

weirdbird · 03/12/2007 23:03

I find that you have to excercise your brain to keep it working, the more I challenge myself the more I find it creaking back to its old self again. (Super fiendish Suduko does it for me!)

But I do get frustrated at not being able to remember things as easily as I used to, but am not sure if that is just age rather than having kids!

Twinklemegan · 03/12/2007 23:06

Someone once said that you give birth to your brain - that rings true to me.

onebatmother · 03/12/2007 23:09

no YAN
NO YANB
NO
n

EmsMum · 04/12/2007 09:58

I'd know exactly where my tea was actually - a few mugfuls inside me before I'd even contemplate starting on some work! perhaps thats what you all need.

Agree that 'brain training' helps - I used attempt Times crossword at bedtime but was seduced by su doku - only the 'killer' sort does it for me though.

Original poster
DabblesInDestruction · 04/12/2007 10:06

lol, the crossword thing is also so true, I USED to be great at them (loved the evening standard one... now cant even do the on ein the sun!)

OP posts:
Original poster
DabblesInDestruction · 04/12/2007 10:06

Not that I buy the Sun..

but if it was in a waitign room or soemthing

OP posts:
minouminou · 07/12/2007 16:56

was asked to do some old chemistry a level type stuff a few weeks back, and i just looked at it in horror.
a few years ago, i'd have taken a deep breath and dredged my memory, but this was like
oh my shit.............where do i begin?
bit upset, really, but i know it's the sleep deprivation what dunnit
it is a shock, though.

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