I have been using the online calculators to figure out my due date: September 17th. This is good, I thought, since it’ll have cooled off a little bit by then, and won’t be too cold for the new little’n. We don’t know too many people born in September, either. This made me start thinking about all the people I do know who were born in September. Most of them are very nice, outgoing, friendly, but not very, um, er, well…smart. They’re not dumb, necessarily, they’re just not much above average.
Apparently, my anecdotal evidence was supported by one study that found most geniuses throughout history have been born in March or April, while the least amount of geniuses have been born in August and September.
For some reason the idea of not having a smart kid really bugs me. I know it is really shallow to base your unborn fetus’ merit primarily on their brain power. I also know that one study’s statistics of when geniuses are born is hardly valid. But for me, intelligence and seeking knowledge is an important part of this future offspring’s heritage.
I am definitely above average intelligence, and my husband is a certifiable genius, so genetically our chances of having a smart kid are good (for the record, I’m born in March and he was born in February). We both like talking about big ideas and concepts and working with complex models. It’s just how we work. Our courtship was based almost entirely on discussing ideas, the merits of one social science theory over another, the biology of very unusual or even extinct creatures, politics, demographics, all kinds of topics that require a strong ability for retention, processing, and formulating new ideas. My husband and I also find that we only hang out with people of above average to genius-level intelligence. My grandfather, my parents, my in-laws, are also all above-average intelligence, and at holiday gatherings we all carry on this same kind of discourse with each other. Sadly, I have also noticed that one member of the in-law family is not above average intelligence, at least not on the same level as the rest of us, and this individual is obviously left out of conversations, and hurt feelings have been growing for almost 30 years because of it. So the idea of not being able to share that experience, basically our culture, with my kid is kind of sad.
I know it’s just one study, and we’re smart parents so our chances of having a smart kid are good, and I will love my kid no matter what. I just really, really hope this kid is one of the few above average types born in September.
awomynous 