All parents seem to want child prodigies, but what if they actually had them?

A lot of parents seem to think their children are geniuses when a vast majority of them are average at the very best, or they want their kids to be geniuses. But if they sat down and really thought about it, would they really want such a bright child?

First of all, their kid would probably outsmart them constantly. I don't know if highly intelligent kids misbehave like normal kids do, but if so, I imagine a child genius could easily find loopholes in punishments, find ways to mindfuck their parents or debate their way out of anything their parents try to impose. Since parents are so used to seeing themselves as authority figures to their kids, how would they deal with a child being several steps ahead of them all the time? What about these gentle discipline parents whose lazy parenting methods provide absolutely no structure whatsoever for their kids? I imagine it would be very hard for a normal person to even try to keep up with someone so smart, regardless of age.

Second of all, the parents most likely wouldn't have the same kind of Kodak moments that most other parents have because their child probably wouldn't have typical child interests. If they wanted to be decent parents, they would have to find ways to foster their child's insanely high intellect, which would cost shitloads of money if the kid gets a fucking doctorate before it's a legal adult. There wouldn't be too many simpler, normal childhood moments because the kid would probably be, for a lack of a better description, too smart for them. Moo and Duh could have bragging rights about how brainy their kid is, but their peers would never be able to relate to them. When the other neighborhood mommies are sitting around discussing their kids' milestones like babbling something that vaguely resembles "mama", how do you work it into the conversation that your similarly-aged child has mastered six languages and completed his/her first novel? A parent of a prodigy would likely get shunned for making the other parents and their brats look bad.

Third, I don't think a truly gifted child could interact very well with its peers. Socializing a child prodigy would probably be an odd and difficult experience and I guarantee said child would feel very left out, whether they're in a normal age-appropriate school or they're in college among adults. It'd be awkward and probably lonely since gifted kids aren't very common and wouldn't have anyone to relate to. Intelligence aside, they're still going to have some of the same needs as regular kids have.

Fourth, great intelligence is often accompanied by any manner of general fucked-up-ness. Most incredibly smart people are also incredibly fucking nuts. Child prodigies are no exception - many seem to have some form of autism.

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I watched something recently about the smartest kids in the world and it just got me thinking about how loads of parents seem to want their kids to be Mensa material instead of just being happy with a typical child. I don't mean parents who can't accept the fact that their kids aren't gifted and act like every single fucking thing their kids do is incredible. I mean parents who have bona fide child prodigies. I'd say it's not all it's cracked up to be.

I was nowhere close to genius material but I can still relate to things like finding my peers tedious and school far less interesting than it should have been. Fortunately my parents tried to provide instructors in areas I was interested in, outside of school.

Honestly, it often seems like most breeders wouldn't have the slightest clue how to handle a kid who is just smart, let alone a genius.

When I was a child, my home, village and school were extremely poor and inadequate.
Every few years, it was re-discovered that I was intellectually far above average and no one knew what to do about that.
The school had no enrichment nor advanced programs and I was very very academically bored most of the time because it took me a fraction of the time to get the educational content compared to my schoolmates.

If I learned something in 5 minutes, I was always expected to sit quietly for the remaining time (ex.45 minutes ) while the lesson was repeatedly pile-driven into my classmates.
I was not allowed to read ahead, nor do any other activity.

My parents were extremely dysfunctional alcoholics, so it fell upon me from an early age to do most of the 'parental and household duties', including raising my brother and bringing in money for the basics of food, clothing and school supplies.

At various stages of schooling, every few years, I had testing for grade levels, IQ and other testing.
When I would get extremely high results, I would get verbally berated and accused of cheating and be forced into extremely hostile re-testing virtually every time.
There never seemed to be an tracking of my high academic grades nor previous types of tests showing high results.

When one high school finally was forced to provide an enriched program for smarter students, we were forced into a completely hostile and silent room with a teacher who hated us and where we had to do the same exercises that every other student had, and that we had already proved mastered, but we had to keep doing them over and over and over again (with very slightly adjusted numbers) for 3 - 4 times as much work, with no benefit. Then we got more of the same for 'homework'.
It felt like punishment and we were not given anything that actually helped us at all.
This was repeated until we all quit and went back to regular classes so we could complete our regular work and sit quietly while other students got the lessons taught to them at glacial pace.
At least we could use the rest of our free time out of class to fumble around filling up our time with other pursuits.

I loved learning but hated the hostile, punishing education system that hated that I learned quickly and stuck me 'on hold' 70-90% of the time after I had accomplished what they asked for.

My own parents were suspicious and resentful of my abilities.
Since they were emotionally stunted alcoholics, to say that I got no support would be simplifying their abusive and sabotaging behaviours.

I'm sorry you had to deal with such an unsupportive and abusive environment, cassia, but your story brings up another point I meant to mention. What if a gifted child has parents who don't understand their needs or just plain don't give a shit? Parents who are intelligent themselves may have some idea about what to do to nurture their kid's advanced learning abilities, but your average joe may not have the faintest clue about what to do. Or worse, some parents may see their kid's heightened intellect as an inconvenience or threat to them and may do everything from neglecting their child's needs to intentionally trying to sabotage their kid's progress because they don't want their kids to be better than them.

If a school has no resources for advanced kids (not uncommon since gifted programs are probably some of the first things to get the axe when districts are looking to save money) and the parents can't afford private tutoring, the kids will go stir-crazy in class and be diagnosed with some kind of mental illness because they can't sit still. Some parents don't want to believe that their kids might actually be gifted because that would mean extra work and it's just easier to put them on Adderall and call it a day.

The average breeder doesn't know how to handle a smart child because the average breeder is fucking stupid and they have to rely on their kids being dumber than they are in order to feel intelligent. When Junior can read better than Mommy, breeders don't know how to deal with that shit.

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cassia
When I was a child, my home, village and school were extremely poor and inadequate.
Every few years, it was re-discovered that I was intellectually far above average and no one knew what to do about that.
The school had no enrichment nor advanced programs and I was very very academically bored most of the time because it took me a fraction of the time to get the educational content compared to my schoolmates.

If I learned something in 5 minutes, I was always expected to sit quietly for the remaining time (ex.45 minutes ) while the lesson was repeatedly pile-driven into my classmates.
I was not allowed to read ahead, nor do any other activity.

Geez, that's bad. My school was equally lackluster, but my parents supported me. I usually had a book with me and would read when I finished my work (well ahead of the rest of the class, like you) and my parents quickly had words with the school when a teacher tried to prevent me from doing it.

No, most parents wouldn't want such a bright kid because once the bragging rights piss enough of other moos, duh and jealous kids off to the point of discouragement then the bright kid will destroy a bunch of Kodak moments. And most parents want an ego extension only and don't want a kid who can think for himself/herself either even if they won't admit it. Parents want a kid who they can occupy easily because they don't enjoy interacting with kids anyways and smart kids who are inclined can figure out ways to get out of doing this if they desire. Also parents want to be able to state convenient lies to kids without them being questioned. And parents certainly don't want kids who will repeat what the parents say at the most inopportune moments in front of the most inappropriate audience imaginable and reveal the parents as two faced and prone to gossip. And heaven forbid the kid is smarter than one or both of the parents!

I was bright enough to be part of the gifted program, so IQ of at least 135. I don't know my IQ score is but I do know most people who claim
to have a high IQ are full of shit (everyone has a genius IQ according to the internet) let alone be a prodigy. Parents greatly discouraged me from taking the test, telling me I would be lucky to be average on my best day. The test was fun and the first time I'd done anything in school that wasn't rote repetition and required actual problem solving. The best part of this for me was that once I was accepted into the program I no longer listened to my parents referring to me as stupid and putting me down every chance they had. I told them I was gifted as proven by the test every time they called me stupid. I had to beg and plead for permission to be tested and it wasn't so I could get some kind of status or ego boost. I wanted an out from the boredom, children don't have the coping mechanisms to deal with 7 hours of boredom daily.

Once I was in gifted the only differences in school work is that it did advance faster but still every bit as repetitive and with a much higher requirement for homework to overwhelm us with mindless repetitive busy work. It was a gifted class plus all the rest of the subjects were supposedly advanced. Again, didn't need to do all that useless homework to learn a subject. Got so bored with the repetition in Algebra that my parents told me to figure out a new way to solve the problems. I did and brought a solution to class and my teacher berated me in front of the entire class for not following the steps given in class. That was the day I went to the school counselor and asked to be removed from the gifted program. They made me wait out the year and kept telling me I'd be embarrassed and was a failure to want to leave the program and go to normal classes. For the gifted class we did mind benders nearly 100% of the time, which was incredibly boring after one hour. I could see doing the puzzles one or twice a month but this was ridiculous.

For high school they accidentally put me in gifted program again and when I picked up my schedule and saw the classes I insisted on being removed from them. They removed me from some and then had me take the ACT and SAT. Scores were high enough to get me admitted to state college but they made me stay in school for the full 4 years anyway.

A few years later I found I have a love for art. Again, parents tell me the usual, I have no talent. Which was a miraculous insight considering they'd only been exposed to my young childhood coloring books plus an art project or two.I didn't care as I wasn't pursuing it due to thinking myself the next Picasso, I was doing it out of love and enjoyment of the process. As an adult my interests have grown considerably as I pursue interests when I have free time and don't listen to anyone who tries to dissuade me or make derogatory statements.

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Cambion
A lot of parents seem to think their children are geniuses when a vast majority of them are average at the very best, or they want their kids to be geniuses. But if they sat down and really thought about it, would they really want such a bright child?

I watched something recently about the smartest kids in the world and it just got me thinking about how loads of parents seem to want their kids to be Mensa material instead of just being happy with a typical child. I don't mean parents who can't accept the fact that their kids aren't gifted and act like every single fucking thing their kids do is incredible. I mean parents who have bona fide child prodigies. I'd say it's not all it's cracked up to be.

I'm almost positive you were a child art prodigy weren't you Cambion? How did your parents deal with that?

Breeders 'say' they want a prodigy, but they actually don't want them, as like having a tard, it's actually more work than an average intelligence child. As many have said, there is a difference between having high intelligence, and actually training and utilising it effectively. This training and utilising takes years of damned hard work, which the vast majority of Breeders simply can't be arsed in doing- as it means actually applying effort.

As well, like as mentioned, money and resources are also required to provide the kid with the best opportunities to bloom on their own - and we all know that your run-of-the-mill breeders simply don't want to spend that on the kid, when they want it to spend on themselves. Then you get the breeders who are two stupid to understand that their gifted child, actually benefits from non-standard education and skills, and insist on making them underachieve, simply to conform to the standards of everyone else.

That's why you don't see many gifted children out in the real world making a difference, as the statistics show that by the time they reach adulthood, many of them simply opt for mediocrity in their life achievements.

I was a "gifted child" and had some problems because of it. My parents were understanding and gave me access to books and other information of the day
(1950/60s).

It was when I went to kindergarten and realized most of them were ignorant little shits that I first realized I never wanted children.

Breeders who have prodigal children end up being on one or another end of a spectrum. Either they discourage the child in a form of Tall Poppy Syndrome (sometimes to the point of abuse) or they go full stage parent/tiger mom and have their kid's schedule full of lessons and never give the child the opportunity to just be a kid.

But it becomes necessary to homeschool a prodigy or get supplemental lessons because the breeders of the simpletons, idiots, and the mentally retarded get very upset at honors and gifted programs because their child would never qualify, so the school boards cave and abolish those programs and introduce mainstreaming. So the smart kids are stuck with the average - below average kids and end up getting in trouble for being fidgety due to boredom.

Then there's the fact that breeders of prodigies have no clue in teaching their kid how to deal with the rest of the world who are envious of kids who master something much faster and earlier. There was one child genius in my area years ago who was getting actual death threats. A program I was watching a few years back about a teenage musical prodigy who recruited other preteen musical prodigies to perform his symphony and when talking to the adult performers of the orchestra, you could hear the barely veiled envy and resentment about how they worked years to get where they were and these kids have already surpassed them and having to basically play backup to a preteen.

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"Why children take so long to grow? They eat and drink like pig and give nothing back. Must find way to accelerate process..."
- Dr. Yi Suchong, Bioshock

"Society does not need more children; but it does need more loved children. Quite literally, we cannot afford unloved children - but we pay heavily for them every day. There should not be the slightest communal concern when a woman elects to destroy the life of her thousandth-of-an-ounce embryo. But all society should rise up in alarm when it hears that a baby that is not wanted is about to be born."
- Garrett Hardin

"I feel like there's a message involved here somehow, but then I couldn't stop laughing at all the plotholes, like the part when North Korea has food."
- Youtube commentor referring to a North Korean cartoon.

"Reality is a bitch when it slowly crawls out of your vagina and shits in your lap."
- Reddit comment

"Bitch wants a baby, so we're gonna fuck now. #bareback"
- Cambion

Oh whatever. Abortion doctors are crimestoppers."
- Miss Hannigan

I have a tested IQ of 140, so I have a damn good idea of how seriously fucked up I would be if it were even 10 points higher. As it stands now I spend most of my life plotting how to avoid most of humanity because it is like talking to a goldfish. At least I have a terminal case of nerdiness and can ramble on about a variety of obscure topics to death so stupid fucks leave me alone. I can't stand humanity.

I despise the idea since that I am of high intelligence I am fucking obligated to help save this cesspool of a species. I feel no great bond to most of this bunch of shit flinging apes, and I plan on breaking out the marshmallows when humanity's stupidity and hubris has finally caused it to collapse in an orgy of death.

I was lucky in that I was born into a family of overly educated freaks so at least my parents knew how to handle me. They did their best to not let school get in the way of my education as long as my grades were good enough. They also had the resources to make sure that I received the right opportunities to be able to succeed.

So no, the average breeder would not be able to handle someone like me. I would have manipulated the fuck out of them and one or both of us would have wound up in the nuthouse or worse. I cringe to think of the lives of geniuses born to utter imbeciles, and how damaging that would be. It would be hellish for the child and they would never be trained to use what they have.

I was one of those "weird kids" in school, too. My IQ test was in the 80-99 percentile (100 being a perfect score), in every tested area, every year.

But my gift was musical. I was in kindergarten and I could hear any piece of music on the radio and reproduce it on the piano. A family member showed me 3 chords, and that was all I needed. I could play anything, and I mean literally ANYTHING, and harmonize it aurally with 3 chords as a little kid. I remember being in elementary school, playing the piano for the class, and playing what the music teacher played in class, simply by hearing it. I had a list of hundreds of titles I could play.

My parents didn't want me to have any lessons, because lessons cost money and they didn't want to spend it on the youngest child. I had all of maybe 2 or 3 years of piano lessons. I went to the local music store for some college hack teacher. The teachers didn't know what to do with me. They would play the piece, I'd remember it and play it back to them by the next week, fully memorized, and by ear. I had one good teacher who started Julliard training with me during my 2nd year of lessons, but he got a professorship someplace and that was the last I saw of him. Did I also tell you I could sing? I was a natural coloratura who could sing the Lakme Bell Song at age 14. Again, no lessons. I used to beg for lessons and opportunities, but the answer was always no.

When I auditioned for college (music conservatory), I memorized a Mozart piano concerto for the audition, including the orchestra reductions, and did a combination solo part with orchestra fill in between the solos. They didn't know what to make of somebody like that. Of course my parents never supported this, my mother told me I should just study business and try to find a rich man to marry. HAHAHAHAHAAH a rich guy at state school!! i was't the first born, so of course I couldn't apply to any elite place, because it cost $$$$$$.

I'm still like this. As an adult, i can literally play anything. Gimme the damned instrument and 5 minutes, and I'll figure out how to play it. I play in groups here. I can arrange music for any combination you need, too. I've recently discovered a love of visual art, and in the space of a few years have already been in several gallery shows. Go figure.

Being like this is a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing when I can use it to create beautiful things. Most mechanical problems aren't a problem for me. Math is easy, too. Yes, I know the relationship between math and music. The curse? Sometimes, people think I'm a freak. Or, I'm in my own little universe, thinking of music, art, things for the future, planning lessons, lectures, etc...while walking down the hallways. and I could walk into a door and not notice. People don't know what to make of me, many people feel they cannot talk to me, cannot relate to me. I can discuss the most esoteric subjects out there, but people think I'm showing off. I think it's because of my gender. If a man was the way I was, he'd be glorified. As a woman, I'm supposed to shut up, not show my intellegence, and smile. Fuck that noise.

I have really lousy social skills out in the general public. For that reason, I tend to shun large parties. However, get me on stage, and I blossom.

I can't stand talking to the average person. All they want to talk about is their kids, or their kids' lives. You never hear them speak about something interesting, educational, or creative. It's as if their minds stopped after graduating college, if they went at all. They don't seem to have any interests or hobbies at all that would make them grow, to expand their way of thinking. And don't get me started on Trump supporters. I know a bunch of them, and the stupid is so bad, it hurts. If you cannot tell the difference between fake news and facts, then I won't help you.


And no, I refuse to give up my life and breed. I knew quite early on that I never wanted kids, never wanted to be stymied in that manner.

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freya
I'm almost positive you were a child art prodigy weren't you Cambion? How did your parents deal with that?

I would never call myself an art prodigy, but I was artistically inclined at a young age. My elementary school barely did any art projects - maybe 1-6 per year, and that number decreased as I moved through each grade. I also never took extra-curricular art classes - I just taught myself how to draw. My mother hated that I chose to draw all the time in class and would constantly tell me that "drawing don't put no bread on the table!" and she always tried to discourage me from drawing. It wasn't until I got to high school that my art teacher gave her an earful for trying to make me stop drawing and that I could have a lucrative career in the field of art. I kind of wish he'd have never said that, though, because then my mother decided to make me go to art college when I never wanted to go to college at all. I wanted to pursue art as a hobby, not as a career.

I was also quite good at spelling and reading and was placed in an advanced reading class a couple times in grade school. But I think the school did away with the advanced classes entirely because there weren't enough students who had the skills to justify special classes.

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Just from this topic alone, I can see that quite a few people here are gifted in one way or another. That could easily be another reason a breeder would never want a super-smart kid: said kid would be smart enough to know how much other kids suck and probably wouldn't provide grand-shits in adulthood. The dumber a person is, the more inclined they are to reproduce. The biggest idiots have the biggest broods. The average people have average numbers of kids. The smarter people usually have one or none at all. I don't think this is a coincidence.

It amazes me how parents will straight up refuse to even attempt to nurture their kid's gifts (when the kid has gifts, anyway). I think an intelligent child can understand that there may not be enough money for special classes, but for parents to go out of their way to force their kids into mediocrity just so they don't have to deal with the needs of a brainy kid is sickening. Meanwhile, other parents will act like their retarded child is going to change the world because it managed to shit its pants only three times in one day instead of the usual six. Why are we so ass-backwards?

I think most American breeders, when they think of child prodigies, they want SPORTS prodigies. People and schools love to spend resources on sports, the top 3 being football, basketball, and softball.

I have been diagnosed with Asperger's and was kind of a "little professor" as these kids tend to be. But there is a severe downside: People expect you to know all the answers. If there was something I didn't know the answer to, oh the criticism. My dad would often give me stuff from the mail and tell me to "look this over" for him, when I really didn't know. That, and I was not good at any sports and I find other kids hate you for that.

At least here in Breed Hills, I have heard parents brag about their smart kids, but they brag much more about their athletic kids.

Ahaha yeah, a brilliant child born to an average woman with a personality disorder is a hell on earth I would wish on no one. Lived it, hated every fucking second of it!
My dad is the one with the smart genes, but I was subjected to parental alienation while living in the same house with them all, so I didn't get any real help from him.

Of course they were abusive, they are very dysfunctional. So, I'm about as functional as some of my cousins with actual Aspergers diagnoses. It's "just" PTSD in my case, lol! My therapist is adamant that I am not on the spectrum although it is easy to mistake. I never did go to college, I was busy being homeless around that age. But I have made up for it and will be retiring early. Somehow I got lucky as a grown person to make up for my shitty beginnings.

A smart kid won't accept everything they are told and want to do what they choose. Many parents resent it when their kids go off and try to live their own lives without the parents in control. They'd be facing that a lot sooner with a smart kid who will see the illogical BS the parents come up with and constantly question it.

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I think most American breeders, when they think of child prodigies, they want SPORTS prodigies. People and schools love to spend resources on sports, the top 3 being football, basketball, and softball.

Ohhhh definitely. When it comes time for school budget cuts, the first goddamn things to feel the penny pinch are gifted/advanced/honors programs and humanities, but they'd NEVER dream of denying the sports programs a dime. Parents of (usually) boys think if they just make their kids take a sport, those kids will become star athletes and join the big leagues so Daddy can brag to his friends about how his son is an NFL quarterback or going to college on a sports scholarship. These are the same overzealous parents who will go to little league games and scream bloody murder at the coaches for not doing things the way Duh wants them to do them, and I say Duh because I rarely hear about Moos going batshit over school sports. And dog help those kids if they "underperform" by the parents' standards or dare say something ridiculous like, "I don't like football. Can I take tap lessons instead?"

Unless the parents themselves are also highly intelligent and know how to outsmart their smart kids, the average Moo or Duh will be way out of their league trying to deal with a brainy kid because they simply can't relate. They won't want to bother trying to get their kids the specialized educations/tutoring they need because it'll require effort and, more importantly, MONEY. Even parents who can afford to put their kids in expensive private schools won't because they're cheap. Then the kids will act like assholes in class because they're bored and Moo/Duh will take them to whatever doctor will prescribe enough Adderall to make the kid just this side of comatose so s/he stops being such a pest. At the very least, the parents could take their kids to the library to read things above their grade level on their own, but the average modern parent can't be bothered to even do that much because it might require them to put down their phones or tablets for 15 seconds.

Even kids who are just a little above average or are super-gifted in one particular area probably won't get the intellectual stimulation they require to not go fucking stir-crazy.

Oh, I'll tell you what happens when BNPs get stuck with a gifted child (gifted compared to most children they're surrounded with, the kid doesn't even need to be an actual prodigy).
They'll execute their bragging rights and, say, win numerous bets against their friends who can't believe their not-even-two-year-old can actually read. They'll be happy to say that their baybee is creative, artistically inclined, a gifted mathematician and takes the initiative to absorb any knowledge she can get her hands on. However, if their (completely hypothetical, of course) "baby Einstein" has problems socializing with her peers and gets relentlessly bullied, they'll ask said child what her problem is, blame the beating and insults on her and, even when she manages to surround herself with a small group of friends as she ages, they'll still keep nagging about how she really should have made friends among the people who kept hurting her both mentally and physically. Heavens forbid she defies their expectations of what kind of (wo)man the child should become - all hell breaks loose. If all these things contribute to severing the trust between them and said kid and if she becomes estranged from them, they'll wonder what went wrong.


On a completely unrelated note - hi dad, what's good?

I don't have low self-esteem. That's a mistake. I have low esteem for everyone else.
-Daria

My gift is visual art & creativity. I feel like an alien in my more conservative leaning smaller town. There are few there, who I can relate to. I always try to remember that social revolutions are inevitable, not only because they happened in the past, but also because people get tired of the bullshit, especially if they're minorities of some type.