Are You Clever?

My kids, like their mom, are stunningly average. But we're all content and generally happy...and sometimes we say and do clever things. But I refuse to think we're "special" because that often leads to feeling entitled. And my kids and I are NOT special little snowflakes that deserve to be treated any differently than the dude walking behind us or the person behind the counter. We're basic, average people...and I'm content with that.

I'm clever some of the time. Doesn't make me unique. Nearly everyone is clever some of the time

But I am unique in that I'm the only one that looks like me. I only have my body. No one else's body is like mine even tho all bodies have the same organs to start with. No one else has a mind or a way of thinking that I do. Babies are born with their own characteristics. So we are all unique. Are you commenting on those issues or something else?

Added
I suggest you're trying to make a complex idea simple. One could teach a course on this issue.

Thank you (above poster [I can't type your name]) for the dictionary definition. The definition illustrates how complex the meaning of clever is. It also indicates that not stepping on gum is not clever. Most of us know to not step on gum so what's clever about that?

Hmmmm...you sparked my interest.

Not stepping in gum on a hot summer day is NOT clever in my book. It is common sense !! Which alot of people do not have.

I am clever at times. I was clever when I found a new way to get myself out of a very difficult situation that people said had only one real solution.

Yes, I do think too often the gifted and talented title is thrown around. I could care less about having a gifted or talented child. I prefer mine to be kind, honest, God loving, charitable, thoughtful and modest in word and deed.

This makes me think of my 3rd grader's conference that I had with his teacher this afternoon. She said how grateful she is that he landed in her class. She looks forward to seeing him each day. She said he is right at grade level but way more mature than her most brightest students.

She said she would trade her brightest students for a roomful of students like my son. She raved about his good attitude, his ability to work well with others, how empathetic he is and how he is so easy going and likeable. She said that she knows he will grow up to be a very good and honorable man in the future. We barely talked about school stuff...it was about his character traits. She is just amazed at what an all around good boy he is. Ummm...I guess being "good" and "respectful" is making kids unique these days.

Now THAT is what this mom right here wants a bumper sticker from the school to plaster across my car. "Proud parent of a good and honorable student that attends__________Elementary School".

We have a stack of the honor roll student bumper stickers from our 3 kids and I really dislike what they stand for when paraded around my town so we just keep them in our home.

The world needs more good and honorable men and women and less focus on the gifted and talented.

I make decisions quickly and confidently, rarely regretting my path once I've made up my mind. I'm extremely logical and can develop strong arguments, but if you ask me to solve a basic math problem you'll swear I'm uneducated. ;)

We all have different strengths and weaknesses. Clever is difficult to label.

Clever is a moment unless you are the revamped Sherlock Holmes (y'know, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman). If I were he, I would be clever, as in 'clever all the time'. For now I just say that I'm a housewife whose usual great idea du jour is what sort of deliciousness we'll have for dinner. I'm have applications for my 'clever', I suppose.

Gifted and talented is only measuring a very slim portion of one's intelligence and personality.....As for unique-- well, I'm not flying unicorn unique, perhaps more the 'hey, look how that flower has a slight permutation from others of its type' unique. Small stuff.

Clever is one of those words with a somewhat subjective definition. What is clever to some might not be to others. Here's a dictionary def:

intelligent and able to learn things quickly
showing intelligent thinking
funny in a way that shows intelligence
skillful or adroit in using the hands or body : nimble <clever fingers>
mentally quick and resourceful <a clever young lawyer>
marked by wit or ingenuity <a clever solution> <a clever idea>

Am I those things?: sometimes, I guess.

I remember going to events with my kids when they were toddlers and the local professors we hung out with at the park loved to tell each other how precocious their kids were. "My, your little one is soooo precocious!" And I thought, how, making pretend ice cream out of sand? Scooping up sand and pouring it into the truck, over and over and over, oh yes, it must be the kid who is running in front of the moving swing, every single day. Yes, he must be the clever one."

I have to report that my teens are no longer precocious. They are smelly, messy, and need to eat way more than they did as toddlers.

I like Gardeners Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Everyone is clever, unique, special, talented or creative in their own ways.

I'm sarcastic. Does that count as clever? (I think so.). :)
Seriously, I think being clever is using creative ways to address a situation or idea that might be considered outside of the norm. I think everyone has the aptitude to be clever. And I think everyone is unique and has their own talents (no two people are alike).

I'm not clever, but I'm earnest.

i'm so not. i'd love to be doctor's companion, but i'd never make the cut. i'm far too not clever.
:( khairete
S.

Everyone wants to think they are special, or that their kids are special, and you are right, most of us are not. But, in the end as long as they are happy who really cares?

I'm not very clever, but I do possess an extremely high need for cognition.

Do you mean like having common sense?

I have common sense to not step in gum in the summer (or any time living in Florida).

I would never say I am clever, gifted, talented or special. Just blessed to have a properly functioning brain.

I am clever when it comes to some things.. or I would say I have a lot of ingenuity or can be very resourceful.. However, that isn't the case with everything... I don't think anyone is clever all the time... and too, clever can be confused with manipulative... I've known a few manipulative people who think they are oh so clever.. but they aren't...