Do you think your children are brighter than you are?

[cyrene]

I went to a pretty crappy university and came out with a 2.2 after working really hard throughout school and coming from a council estate.

My three kids have done very well in school (not boasting before the inevitable), one at Oxbridge, another doing dentistry, and the other a medic.

So yes, I think they are brighter than me. Will anyone else admit it ?

I think most people want their kids to be brighter than them and to better than them.
My DD really struggles which was such a shock because I thought she’d take after me and find academic stuff really easy.

Interesting question. I'm not neurotypical and have sometimes looked very not-bright (still sometimes do). My DD isn't biologically mine and it is so interesting to see her effortlessly managing things I struggle with, especially to do with dexterity and patterns.

My daughter is more intelligent than me.

I'm a member of Mensa, and for her career choice job applications she has to do specific on line tests. I score high and she beats me.

So factually she's more intelligent than I am. I have no issue admitting it and given a choice would always have her more intelligent.

Absolutely!!! I am so proud of them

My dd isn't as academic as I was, but she's more intelligent I think.

I dunno. I'm an Oxbridge grad and successful career-wise, DS sometimes bites his own foot too hard and cries.*

• DS is 21 months old though...

Dd1 is probably about the same as me and dh(both more inteligent than average but not exceptionally so). Dd2 is very bright but doesn't apply herself much to her teachers dispair

One is. The others...

I’m well educated (graduate degree from a Russell Group uni) but I wouldn’t say I’m more than averagely intelligent. I had the advantage of supportive parents and a decent work ethic. I hope my own DCs will have both of these things as well. Much more important than intelligence.

Yes I would agree. It's natural progress though isn't it. As the decades progress, we know more as a society; education is honed and that knowledge is passed to the generation currently at school / uni. It's inevitable. I honestly consider myself pretty smart, but nowhere near as intelligent as my teenage son. It amazes me however that his intelligence doesn't always transfer to life skills. He could talk the hind legs off a maths , chemistry or biology problem but wouldn't know what a dishwasher tab looked like if it hit him between the eyes!!

Yes certainly ds1 is, think GCSEs at 11 smart. My eldest is studying for a masters in biological science.
I have a MA and am completing (very very slowly lol) a phd but both of them are far quicker and sharper than me.
My younger two have other strengths.

Yes but so is the dog next door! I have no qualifications at all!

Interesting question. I was very academic whereas dh not academic at all. Both kids very academic and fly along with no effort. Dh used to say before we had kids he hoped they'd take after my family as he hated school as it was such a struggle and he always felt stupid and didn't want his kids to ever feel like that. I'm actually not sure if they're more intelligent, dd1 might be whereas dd2 might be the same as me and is more like me in that she's very good with organisation too. Dd1 is highly intelligent but Christ she lives on a different planet 🙄

I wish! Both my children have learning disabilities whereas DH and I are both intelligent, highly qualified etc. It's a funny old world.

I don’t think there is a lot of difference between us but our children have had more opportunities and far better support at a young age. DD in particular is able to do all sorts of things that DH and I know for sure we did not master at her age.

Myself and my daughter are polar opposites, she is really really smart and I'm not very intellectual ar all.

My dd1 is 5 but I can already see she's going to be smarter than me... She remembers things easily and learned to read fast.
Dd2 is only 2 but has so much energy and determination that it could go either way... If she channels it correctly she could go far.

No. I enjoyed studying, am organised, motivated and managed exams fine. I completely assumed my children would be the same and it has been an unpleasant shock. When I say I assumed, I mean it never crossed my mind that they wouldn't also be 'academic'. I never gave it a second's thought. DS1 is disinterested and unmotivated. He got 8 GCSEs at the lower end last year, which is not to be sniffed at, but did the minimum possible throughout his school life and didn't do well enough to do the A levels he'd thought he would.
He's at college now, Alevel and BTECs - still doing the minimum possible he can get away with.
DS2 only Yr 7 but seems slightly brighter and slightly keener... but I imagine his teenage years will put paid to that!
It is a source of disappointment for me because DS1 lacks aspiration and ambition. He is reducing his options/ opportunities/choices in life by not working hard.

Yes I would agree. It's natural progress though isn't it. As the decades progress, we know more as a society; education is honed and that knowledge is passed to the generation currently at school / uni. It's inevitable.

But that's just being more educated though rather than raw intelligence (which is quite hard to measure on its own).

Was talking to DBro about something similar and about the ability to conceptualise and empathise increases with education. So we become more liberal because the intellectual skills that are trained with education allow us to e.g. imagine how we would feel if we were treated like a member of a disadvantaged group and therefore have more empathy for that group.

As far as my DC? Well DH and I met while doing PhDs at Oxbridge (DH had a very expensive education, I didn't but both middle class so house full of books, academics in the family etc) . So since they are still at primary school it's a bit hard to say if they are going to do as well academically but our assumption is that they'll all go to good universities. The eldest is clearly doing maths (e.g. algebra, bodmas) that we didn't do until secondary school but is bright rather than exceptional.

Definitely. My dd finishes this year with a masters in maths and will be a teacher from September.

I left school at 15 after o levels. You didn't even do a levels then unless you wanted to be a doctor, teacher, solicitor etc. This was 1985.

That's an interesting question OP, I would say no not more intelligent but that they have had far far more opportunity and encouragement to progess their education than I did. As a child in the 80s i was just left to my own devices and although consistently top of my class thoughtout secondary school, there was no option for further study.

Maybe that's part of the reason I've always encouraged them to think big and strive for their dreams and they all are in their own ways.

As a baby boomer, I left school at 15, as did DH. Although DC were products of 70s/80s education, both have masters and have done well in their careers. But the DGC are having the best opportunities! The littlest seems pretty bright, don't know how academic yet, but the older two are sailing through school, and are far more knowledgeable than I can remember being.

However, if our generation had been able to access information electronically, who knows....

All four are as or more intelligent in different ways.