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Just what is this family dynamic? See if you can figure it out.
Who doesn’t love a good riddle (especially a good love riddle?) (Or a “Can you find the…” puzzle.) Well, this head-scratching riddle has gone viral. It’s now making the rounds on sites such as Reddit and Twitter. But can you solve it? While you’re at it, try to solve this riddle about Mr. Smith having four daughters. 

Teresa’s daughter riddle

First, if you haven’t heard it, here is the Teresa’s daughter riddle:

“If Teresa’s daughter…” riddle answer

Let’s start by examining the second part of the Teresa riddle setup: “my daughter’s mother.” Hey ladies, imagine you have a daughter. (Perhaps you do.) Who is your daughter’s mother? You, of course!
Now, let’s substitute yourself in for that part of the question. So, it becomes, “If Teresa’s daughter is me, what am I to Teresa?” And now the answer is quite simple to parse out—you’re Teresa’s daughter.

Another way to think about Teresa’s daughter riddle

What about for all the fellas out there? Let’s go through the same process. Who is your daughter’s mother? It’s likely your wife (although it could also be your ex, your girlfriend, or your partner).
For now, let’s use “wife” and make the same substitution as we did before. The question now becomes, “If Teresa’s daughter is my wife, what am I to Teresa.” And now the answer is that you’re Teresa’s son-in-law. (Although ex-son-in-law, daughter’s boyfriend, daughter’s ex-boyfriend, etc. work as well.)
It’s worth mentioning that these (albeit valid) answers are usually not included in the answer choices the way “Teresa’s daughter” is. So, that is the most popular and widely accepted answer.

"Mr. Smith had four daughters" is a viral Facebook riddle that has everyone stumped. Check out the detailed answer here!
If you’re on Facebook or other social media, you might have seen a popular riddle or two going around. A few of the trickiest ones have gone viral, like the “Mr. Smith had four daughters” riddle. Many people have been totally stumped by this riddle, and they want to know what it means. However, a lot of those social media posts are missing the No. 1 thing you want when you’re trying to solve a challenging riddle—the answer! Here, we’ve provided the riddle of “Mr. Smith had four daughters” in full, along with the answer and an explanation. You’ll still have to figure it out, but you can check to see if your reasoning was correct. (No cheating!)
RELATED: Can you solve this viral riddle about Teresa’s daughter?
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The “Mr. Smith had four daughters” riddle

The riddle reads as follows: Mr. Smith had four daughters. Each of his daughters has a brother. How many children does Mr. Smith have?
This is a deceptively tricky riddle! If your first thought was that Mr. Smith has eight children, you’re not alone. Lots of people think that each daughter has one brother, making four daughters and four brothers, which equals eight children. But nope, that’s not right! The riddle seems like a math test on the surface, but it’s actually all about reading comprehension.

The answer to the “Mr. Smith had four daughters” riddle

The answer to the riddle is … five. Mr. Smith has five children. Each of his daughters has a brother, but they all share the same brother. Therefore, four daughters plus one brother equals five children in total. Grammar nerds might have gotten this one right before math lovers!
Of course, it’s called the “Mr. Smith had four daughters” riddle, so you could interpret that past tense “had” in two ways: First, that Mr. Smith had four daughters—i.e., that four daughters were born to him. Or you could read it to mean that Mr. Smith used to have four daughters but now has none, in which case the answer to how many children he had might be zero. However, the more commonly accepted interpretation is the first one: that Mr. Smith has four daughters and one son, making five children in total.