Not so much

.
'my dad's career didn't take off as/so much as my mom's' -- or didn't take off at all.
.

I just want to add that "no so much" has become quite popular lately as a deliberate understatement. I use it myself.

Peter did really well on his exams. Jennifer, not so much.

It doesn't even have to match grammatically - "Did well... didn't do so well" is parallel, but this expression doesn't requrie parallelism. This wouldn't mean that Peter got a 100% and Jennifer a 95%, but

I speak fairly good english, Geek, but I haven't the slightest clue what you are talking about - especially wrt the parallelism mumbo-mumjo. How much more so for the LOTE students?

I have no idea what LOTE means.

"Not so much" is now an idiom that can be used with flexibility. You don't have to match it to a parallel expression.

If you don't know what parallel means in grammar, then here are a few sites:

Thanks for your answers Mister Micawber, Grammar Geek!

I think I read something about how the expression 'not so much' got so popular these days. Some comedian first used it around 70's, didn't he? Anyway, the parellelism regarding the idiom 'not so much' has been irritating me so much and thanks so much for explaining it to me, Grammar Geek!