Punctuation Is Important

Your Mom wrote:I wonder sometimes whether parents truly understand what they are doing. In your situation, the result of the test seems to speak for itself.

I once did a similar thing with my son when he was in his early teens and was very happy that he outscored me with his 154 result; It should be every parent's hope that their offspring should be greater than they. Like yourself, I won't mention mine as this is not a dick waving contest.

Being a parent is tricky. All you can do is the best that you can do and 9 times out of 10 you get it wrong or you get it right and you're married to someone who thinks you are wrong. My dad was a wonderful soul, not brilliant by standard with an 8th grade education but he could jerry rig with the best of engineers and could build just about anything. I learned about tools from him. My mom, a totally different creature, is well educated, taught me how to read before Kindergarten, corrected my grammar and was inspirational in all things that probably don't matter. Today, she is an old woman who values money more than people. She probably has been this way always but her recent interaction with my sister has really exposed her as the indignant woman that I suspected her to be.

IQ is subjective. My daughter, a brilliant engineer with an IQ higher than mine, is book smart but could step down from the high horse on occasion. BALANCE, my friends!

Oh, I'll not argue with you, Emma. Having been a single parent of three, starting when the youngest was around 2 years old, I'm fully aware of the trials and tribulations of parenthood. You are right, we can only do our best, but that doesn't stop our children from blaming us.

Sarah's situation is somewhat different and I shan't go in to detail, but let me just say that it involved abuse. I guess I shouldn't have attributed that to IQ.

I have seen on countless occasions when people with a very high IQ have done the most dumbest things and many times they have very poor social skills. Book learnin' ain't everything for sure and, again you are right, it should be all about balance.