Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion he's smarter then me......

DS7 is smarter then me. Well I should say that he will be a smarter adult then I am. I am not saying that I am not smart... well ok, that is what I am saying...lol.

I read these boards and people talk about IQ and acronims and numbers.... it all just slips through my sieve like brain. I write an email to someone and need the boy near me in case there is something I can't spell- which happens often. I feel very unsmart most of the time. As you can tell, I have a good sense of humor about it. I have come to terms with having a child that is going to end up way smarter then me.

Is there any one else on here that is a mouth breather like me?

DD8 told me when she was 7, I think, "I am smarter than you." No judgement or anything, just an observable certaintly on her part.

Plus didn't you say you were dyslexic or something? That has more to do with how the brain sorts and stores info brought in and less to do with what you are capable of eventually doing with it("smarts")

Give yourself a break friend!

Just my two cents! Spelling has nothing to do with intelligence. My uncle has major dyslexia, and his iq is 150. You maybe just as smart as you child. When you have a LD it can make you feel very stupid. I think i may have an undiagnosed mild Ld my self. I frequently find myself on the verge of tears when i can't do something simple(ex. putting something together from written directions, I must have a picture), yet i am more than capeble of advanced complex math and reasoning.
Don't sell yourself short!

I'm always telling my kids that smart doesn't mean much...it's what you do with it. If you make a difference in the world, contribute to betterment in the community/world, work hard, be creative, etc...those are meaningful. I think about the TV show with the guy who reportedly had the highest IQ known and lives alone in a trailer, devoting the last 7 yrs to writing a treatise on something no one can understand. So what if he's smart. One speaker I heard at a conference said the most "functional" intelligence level is between 140-150. He named all the "greats" like Einstein, Edison, and said they were high IQ but not super high. I'm trying to focus on making my guys well-rounded and well-adjusted.

I've come to the determination that all my kids are way smarter than I was at their age. And after discussing gluons and quarks with my oldest daughter and the water cycle and "condensation" with my youngest twin, all on the way to dinner last night, I have come to accept that I have a lot to review/learn if I'm to keep up with the conversation at all. Thank God the other two who can talk were otherwise occupied with games! I have no idea how smart I am or am not but I know I don't think the same as my children. I just look at how blessed I am to have such smart kids and do my best to give them what they need, my love and understanding as well as whatever intellectual stimulus they need.

Who is it that said, "some of the smartest people can be really dumb"?

My ten-year-old son is definitely smarter than I am, and not only do I feel "not as smart" as my child, but I have a mother with dementia, so just imagine how I feel when I forget something that my son instantly remembers.

OH- YIKES! That's a rough one!

Just keep in mind that although the child may have the capacity to learn things faster than you, you still have a lifetime of experience that the child does has not have. You are still the parent.

My DD9 certainly has a capacity to learn and better resources to foster that than I did. She knows she is "smarter" than most of the kids her age she interacts with. But I have never heard her say "I'm smarter than you" although she may be aware of it. Sometimes I am impressed how she problem solves and how quickly she can figure out a problem in a way I would have never thought of. So in ways, I think her capacity is greater and she will go further than I will. So far I can keep up, but maybe not too many years down the road, LOL.

Jen

when DS8 was 5 I had the startling realization that yes, this child was faster, quicker, more perceptive than I was ...

but it was a great jump off point for contemplations of various kinds of intelligences and also a chance to let go of a lot of "stuff" around parent/child roles. I mean, we all have the capacity to teach each other, right?