Most Intelligent: Your Mother or Father?

[EatsBrainsAndLeaves]

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

I'm just going by personal experience - almost every father I know is more intelligent than his wife. I also know that I would not have a relationship that lasted more than one night with someone less intelligent than me.

I haven't IQ tested all the men I know. I'm assuming I'm unbiased, and my opinion of my friends' relative intelligence is accurate. This is not necessarily the case. I might have all kinds of bias lurking.

I like my theory though, I'm sticking by it!

So how are you defining more intelligent? Is it: better job, better at crosswords, better level of degree from better uni?

I can't believe that so many men are more intelligent than their wives/partners. I think women of a certain age are more likely to down play their intelligence because it seems more feminine and attractive, they have been led to think this way.

i think people look at the roles their parents do rather than the actual intelligence possessed.

I have long been of the opinion that work makes you less intelligent (limiting your horizons as it does!)

Better at understanding jokes/tv plotlines/current events. I suppose I also assume someone is more intelligent if they have some kind of desire to learn/read/understand the world. This doesn't have to mean having a degree, or any formal education.

"women of a certain age are more likely to down play their intelligence because it seems more feminine and attractive"

Yes

"people look at the roles their parents do rather than the actual intelligence possessed"

And yes

I don't have a degree (yet) but DP does, he assures me I am far brighter than him

Not many people have mentioned sense of humour, surely this is another aspect of intelligence that is underrated.

beansmum, could it be that your perception of 'intelligence' is rather skewed to roles that are more often played by men?

For example, 'desire to learn/read/understand the world'. In your definition, a SAHM who spent much of her time observing and trying to understand her autistic child would be less intelligent than her partner, who was well informed about world affairs from reading the newspaper on his daily commute.

Hmm...maybe...?
But I said desire to learn, not opportunity. And I suppose, by world, I meant the bit of the world that is most important to you. So maybe a more intelligent SAHM with an autistic child would spend a lot of time researching the condition, reading and finding support.

What is the point of that question?

Hi Widow I have explained on 22nd at 10:47. Sorry cba to type it again

I used to think my mum was more intelligent than my dad.It was only when I was older,that I realised dads job was quite a manual one,and his natural intelligence had been somewhat hidden.
FWIW my DH and I did a reliable IQ test, and we got exactly the same score,even though we had answered different questions wrongly. it has stopped the conversations on that issue ever since

I can honestly say they are both equally intelligent; my dad is good at history, science and maths stuff (like me) and my mum is good at literature, arty stuff and finance (not like me). When they have some they like to have a political debate and I love listening to them.

Growing up I thought my dad was more intelligent until I cottoned onto the fact that my mum downplays her intelligence to make others look good.

My parents both have very similar educational backgrounds, they have the same degree (although my Dad got a higher classification) and a post graduate qualification (Dad - MBA, Mum - PGCE topped up to a Masters in education) so it is hard to judge. They are both pretty intelligent and actually met doing the same job (research chemistry).

I think they are pretty much equal? My mum is frighteningly good at maths and always says that had she done a maths degree she would have done better at her degree. I think my Dad understands some of the more technical science stuff better than my Mum but that is because he works with it on a daily basis. I tend to go to my Mum for explanations of things because she is a teacher and is good at explaining things, my Dad gets bogged down in the details!

I am more academically intelligent than my DH, he is more useful than me though and can understand practical concepts in a way I cannot.

My mother by a very very long mile, in all aspects of intelligence, emotional etc

my mum. and unlike beansmum i would say that looking at most of my friends i think it would be their mothers too...

As Pam says really. My mum in all ways that are important.

How do you define intelligence though anyway? Is it knowing stuff about the world in general, politics, sport, all the great works of art and science? If so it's hardly surprising that men would know more stuff - the world is all about them and so they'd naturally find it more interesting and easier to identify with. It must be so nice to have that feeling...

It's impossible to win an argument with my father, even when he is 100% wrong. Excellent debating skills. Very good at analyzing data and seeing patterns.He'd fit right into some stereotyped guff about male and female brains. However, he is a tosser who has lived his life claiming he just doesn't 'get' stuff that is fairly crucial, such as why someone may be distressed because he's just treated them really badly.

My mother is also v. good at analyzing data, but she gets a narrative out of it - an important story about how, say, health policy ought to be re-written, but with the human factor as central (which is how health policy ought to work, but often doesn't).

My father is a carbon copy of Edam's (are you one of my sisters Edam?), with a side order of bullying thrown in. He is extremely good at debating but his arguments all stem from enormous prejudice and he is incapable of seeing any validity in anyone else's arguments. The 30 odd units of alcohol a day for 40 years have somewhat eroded his cognitive abilities, let us say. He always had a better impression of his mental ability than was borne out by evidence and was never shy about letting people know that he thought they were stupid.

My mother is a lot more analytical but was prevented from staying at school past 16 by her father. As a result she has large gaps in knowledge that she has never plugged by reading. I think that before she developed epilepsy in the late 1960s and was put on chemical cosh drugs, she probably had better cognitive ability than my father, although she comes from a generation that believed it desirable to be inferior to her man in all things so would never have even attempted to outwit him. She has buckets of good sense and is one of the hardest workers and most persevering people I have ever met. She finds arguing and debating very difficult though and is pretty defensive when she doesn't know things and tends to resort to a dogmatic "because I say so". Not the best tool for dealing with obnoxious teenage children (sorry mummy).

I have learned an awful lot from both my parents, and come to the conclusion that intelligence is really not all it's cracked up to be- it doesn't make you successful, it doesn't make you a better or a nicer person or more hard-working. It's nice to have but doesn't absolve you from being a decent human being (geniuses excepted- they have to be allowed to do their thing).

I sympathise, duchesse. Don't think we are sisters, unless my father's managed to hide a drinking problem from me for more than 40 years!