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Why aren't I as clever as my dad?

My dad is a DR in Psychology. He studied at Royal Holloway University of London and York University and started working to become a professor in the subject. Unfortunately he died 10 years ago and I didn't really know him very well. My mum is just an average woman who has worked in supermarkets and as a carer for an old man who we adopted 15 years ago! I asked my mum why was my dad with her given that he was very intelligent and to this she got very angry. I must have undermined her by essentially saying she wasn't worthy of my dad but then she said although my dad was clever, he was an alcoholic and died as a result of this. I've been thinking about this a lot of lately and I can't get my head around why my dad decided to get with my mum who is an average (probably quite dumb) woman?

I'm not lying when I say my dad was those things because I've seen photos of him receiving his Doctorate when he was younger. Sometimes things just don't make sense. Why would my dad choose a lowly uneducated peasant like my mum, rather than another DR like himself? I asked my mum this and she said sometimes people like to escape from work and confide in 'normal' people because their job is stressful. She also said that he liked her personality and just because someone is smart doesn't mean ordinary people aren't enjoyable to be around.

Their relationship and coming together freaks me out. It seems very illogical to me and not what 'normal' people do. I'm sure a lot educated people would stick with educated people and vice versa. Why have such a disparity like this?

I'm not as smart as my dad, no where near as smart but I'm smarter than my mum. I'd say I'm a quarter smarter than my mum but 3/4 less smarter than my dad. Probably just under halfway between the two of them.

Why doesn't intelligence carry forward through generations? Why aren't I as clever as my dad?

Reply 1

Get_Buckets

Well I don't know how true this is but I read somewhere that we get about 80% of our intelligence from our mothers. That's crazy, right? Such a large amount. When I look at my own example, I would definitely say I have like 70% of my dad's intelligence. In your case you probably got a small amount of you dad's intelligence, I'm not psychologist, I'm just guessing.