I took the GRE at 21, during my senior year of college. I took it a second time, when I was 29, I’d been out of school for 7 years, and my first child was 4 months old. My verbal and quantitative scores were exactly the same, +/- 10 points. My analytical reasoning score?? Down 250 points. Yikes. I’d like to think my analytic score would go back up if I took it again, but I’m not willing to take the exam again to find out.
I’m inclined to chalk my “loss of intelligence” up to a combination of lack of sleep, hormonal weirdness, and lack of practice thinking about anything very complex.
OP: I definitely spent my son’s earliest years with the vague notion that I had at one time been much smarter. I agree with those who attribute it to diminished sleep and increased worry. With a baby and then toddler you have to be alert even when you’re asleep. I’m in a sort of reprieve period now that I expect will end when he starts to drive in a couple years.
I’m a lot better now that my kids are 7 and 10. But yeah, we call it mommy brain and it’s mainly because 80% of your existence is now totally dedicated to baby maintenance. If you’re not actually looking at and interacting with the baby, your brain is on a little loop that goes “Where is the baby? Is the baby breathing? Who is caring for the baby? Is there danger? Does the baby need food, diaper, new clothing? …5 second break to think about something else… Where is the baby? Is the baby breathing?” and so on, ad infinitum.
Yes, this is IT, precisely. Non-parents don’t understand this, but this is true.
Later on in life, this can continue. Insert “has baby had an accident with the car”, “is baby being bullied in school”, “has baby been raped and murdered because it’s almost 5 a.m. and baby isn’t home yet”, “is baby becoming a druggie slacker”, “why is baby out, again, with that utter boob he/she can’t seem to get enough of”…It just doesn’t end!
Feeling your pain, bro … well, your fog. I just told my brain: “See ya when the kids go off to college!” And now one’s in college, and I’m starting to be able to think about concepts again… it’s great. So hang in there.
Oh, and dangermom and salinqmind, the worrying about older kids is less debilitating. I’ve got a kid living in SF on a friend’s couch for a while. But I don’t have to worry about him breathing… I doubt the White Slavers have done him in… yet.
I’ll put it this way–I have two kids under the age of three, and yesterday I went to the store with my pants on inside out. And didn’t even care that much when I discovered my mistake.
One of my good friends is a lawyer, and she had her kids later in life than I did…I think her oldest is ten years younger than my oldest. At some point, maybe when she was pregnant with Baby#2, I mentioned pregnancy brain to her…I think I was asking her specifically if she’d noticed an inability to concentrate at work…and she said yes. When I told her this was totally normal for a pregnant woman, she nearly cried with relief. She really had been worried about herself. I told her to think about it in terms that some portion of your brain has to be busy building a whole other human being now, while still maintaining rational thought and your own bodily functions. She said that made her feel so much better just to know it wasn’t just her.
Of course, I can’t remember if I saw this on the news or some documentary, or what, but at one point I heard that a woman’s brain shrinks during pregnancy (something to do with the baby needing the nutrients or whatever) and this is what causes the beginning of the “baby/mommy brain”.
The mother’s brain is supposed to expand back to it’s “normal” size six months after birth.
Does anyone else recall this? And where the heck did I see or hear it??
Hmm, although I’m a guy with “kid brain”, I was starting to believe there was probably a “pregnancy brain” that was the result or hormones and changes in the mother’s body, but there is actually a study that found it’s just sleep deprivation and a more hectic lifestyle. Relevant quote “Your IQ doesn’t change, but your priorities sure do.”