Most Intelligent: Your Mother or Father?

[EatsBrainsAndLeaves]

So who is most intelligent amongst your parents - your mother or your father?

Tough one - I think they're about the same, and both rather intelligent, but have made some bad choices. And my mother can come out with some astoundingly stupid stuff sometimes, which is more confusing as she is obviously quite clever.

DP and I are about the same, same level of education, just clever in different ways (he's more mathematically intelligent, I'm more language-y/humanities intelligent)

And both my grandmothers were ridiculously intelligent, but for one she was forced to leave school at 14. She was very curious, read a lot, learned a new word every day and designed the house that granddad built for her. If she'd been born 20, 30 years later it would have been so different.

Both my parents would say they are the more intelligent. We are a confident household

My df is more academic, both passed grammar school exams but my dm in her own words "couldn't be bothered".

I always thought that she didn't think she was particularly clever, as she is self depreciating and has never wanted a career, even though I thought it was obvious she was.

However, one fine day when df was bragging talking about his high IQ score that was founded on his grammar school exam, my dm casually dropped in that hers was higher. Oh how I laughed

I have 2 db's and they are both more academic and intelligent than their wives. Me and dh are about the same, I have a quicker mind I think, but he can understand things with more complexity as he is willing to work at it.

My father is a lot better educated than my mother, and had a career that was intellectually challenging and developed him still further. My mother is clever but hindered by her less well honed analytical skills.

I would say it's about equal.

My Dad would insist it's my mother.

She got married just before she graduated and never had a job, so she has very little confidence in herself or abilities. I think it's also just her personality to lack confidence and be self-effacing.

But my Dad has always been her champion :)

We always got sent to her with our maths homework.

I realise looking back that he did this because he wanted us to appreciate her and how smart she is (it worked) but also because he wanted his girls to know that women can be just as good as/better than men at maths.

She used to always insist that she was the taller of the two (she is not, by a fair way) and we believed her because from a child's angle you can't tell :o

I think probably my Mum, but my Dad would think he was. And I'm cleverer than both of them

My Dad is better at maths, does a technical job etc, but tends to overestimate his abilities e.g. with computers and show off a bit, which shows if you know more about a subject than he does. He reads a lot, but more for pleasure.

My Mum is a slower learner and doesn't think of herself as academic but she has skills e.g. reading music, playing the guitar, has learned how to paint in recent years and seems to pick things up more easily and read more for purposes of learning/self development. For example, she has always insisted she's "rubbish" at computers, but in recent years has picked stuff up and - for example, my grandad sent her a satnav and tried to explain in a complicated way over the phone how to use it, saying he got all confused about doing XYZ on it. But because over the past few years she's done more on computers, used phones and other gadgets etc, she picked it up and found it easy and intuitive to use.

I also find my Mum more thoughtful whereas my Dad - well, there's a great saying, "A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices" - yep, that would fit him

"My DF couldn't read or write when he left school, my DM taught him when they were courting as teenagers."

:)

OMG, that is so sweet! What an amazing story.

"Intelligence" is bum though, and subjective. What does it mean, anyway? What if one person is slower to pick up a skill but in the end is better at it? Then who's better?

Yes, good point Bertie. There are so many ways to be intelligent.

And intelligence related to traditionally women's spheres is usually underrated.

e.g. "male" abilities like maths and engineering = very clever

"female" abilities like sewing, running a house efficiently = any idiot can do them

Very different - DM "cultured", DF "geeky/blokey".

In an IQ test though, I'd put money on my DF.

About the same I think. Mum has two degrees to dads one though.

My children think I'm more intelligent than dh. I think we just have different strengths

A thing, your dad sounds lovely

And the courting coupler were sweet

Both left school at 16 and went into jobs. My Dad struggles to read so I would say my Mum, but its not much of a contest :(

However my Dad is the sweetest person you will ever meet and I love him to pieces.

my mother.

it is always said she could walk behind you through a revolving door, and come out ahead....

dad is a clever clogs too.

Im wondering what the basis of the question is. Intelligence is a very subjective thing. I not the OP has not added anything to the thread after the initial post.

If there is a point to this then please share it.

Don't know really, they're pretty much on the same level I'd say. Probably my dad as he has a more inquiring mind than my mum and is quicker at understanding new technology and concepts. My mum has wider interests though and recently learnt to program in HTML (in her 60's!). It's a tough one.

The only way to find out would be to give them an IQ test I suppose, and I wouldn't really like to guess at the results of that one.

*note ... damn typo's

I think this thread is very sad in its blatant sexism.

KoPo - Fair question. I read about a study done on intelligence and perceptions of intelligence of men and women. The study was looking at the idea that in general, people think men are more intelligent than women. Now obviously if you ask people if men are more intelligent than women, most people are going to say no, as it is not generally socially acceptable to say this, even if people think it.

So instead it asked people who was most intelligent - their mother or father. About two thirds of people said their father. Of course statistically, it should be about fifty fifty. So about fifty per cent saying their father is more intelligent and fifty per cent their mother.

MNers I think are generally more intelligent and thoughtful than a random population - so I wondered what people here would say - thats all. There are too few replies here to be statistically significant - but it is roughly fifty fifty so far.

Of course as some posters have pointed out the concept of intelligence can itself be problematic - does it refer to level of education for example, in which case amongst older people, men are generally better educated in a formal sense than women. Or is it about analytical skills, emotional intelligence, etc. But the question simply leaves it up to the person answering the question to make their own interpretaion of what intelligence is.

I thought it was an interesting study though, as it tries to reveal what people really think. But I am heartened, even if it isnt statistically significant, that MNers seem to have a more realistic view of men and women's intelligence. Of course I posted this in feminism, which also probably helped!

I don't know. How are you measuring intelligence?

SGM X posted. Why blatant sexism?

xposts!

I would like to say mum. She has two degrees, and whilst working in a scientific role wrote and had published a paper, which has changed the way environmental scientists predict climate change.

However, dad has an almost genius capacity for languages, and can speak, read and write 10 different ones fluently, including 4 different scripts. He has a huge memory capacity for words and can quote whole sections of poetry or plays that he hasn't read for 30 years or more. He is extremely well-read on world history.

But if it came down to a straight IQ test, I don't know who would come out top. Mum's ability with language is about average, and dad struggles with mathematics and scientific concepts.

Thanks for explaining the purpose to me. That makes a lot more sense now.

My parent are both very intelligent people in vastly different ways. My Mother is the one for general knowledge and was always good at helping with homework. My Father is the one who could be handed a broken item or a drawing of a part needed and it would be made almost as if by magic. Dad was also the one who could tell if someone was hurt or down at a glance and always seemed to know just how to make the person feel much better.

If you looked at just one area it would appear that one was ahead of the other but looking at the whole picture you see how they complimented and balenced each other.

My Dad was more intelligent. They both left school at 15 but he was very well read and naturally clever. My mum, however, had far more common sense and social intelligence.