A new study has discovered a link between mother-toddler bonding and teenage obesity. Apparently, if you moms don't connect emotionally with your tykes well enough, it could raise Junior's risk for obesity by the time they're 15. No pressure or anything, but you could make your kid fat.
Okay, two things: First, obviously bonding emotionally with your toddler is an important thing to do for a million reasons. And honestly, I think the vast majority of us get the job done just fine, thank you. I guess I'm not surprised that kids who don't get properly attached to their parents at a young age would grow up to "eat their feelings," which is what appears to be happening. But something irks me about this study: why didn't they study toddlers' relationships with their DADS, too?
It's like there's another study every other day about ways Moms Are Doing It Wrong -- I think I see about 200 studies about moms for every study I see about dads, or at the very least parents in general. It's disappointing that researchers still haven't caught on to the impact both parents can have on children's development. Dads take on more of the childcare than they have in the past -- and that needs to be represented in these child development studies. And if they're not taking on more childcare, doesn't that matter, too?!?
I swear, I scanned the whole article for mention of "dads" or "parents." (The study was published in a print version of the journal, Pediatrics.) All I found was a line saying that this study reinforces other studies about how "toddlers who didn't have close emotional ties with their parents were more likely to be obese by the time they were 4.5 years old." So why didn't this study focus on both parents, too?
I'm not saying this isn't still useful information. It is! I just wish more researchers would start paying more attention to dads. Studies like this one can lend themselves easily to "blame the mom" games. (MY FAVORITE!) Dads don't get off the hook in real life. But when I read stories like these I picture dads off peacefully fly-fishing while moms do all the work and take all the responsibility.
Does it bother you when parenting studies only look at moms?
Written by Adriana Velez on CafeMom's blog, The Stir.
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Then it was figured out that it was actually a physical brain condition.
Duh.
I was in the grocery store last year picking out some frozen dinners because I'm a single senior citizen. I add a salad and fruit. A young couple was looking through the glass doors. He asked her what they were going to have for dinner. She said she though she would cook that night. He asked what, and she said she would heat up fish sticks. That Is Not Cooking! She mentioned the names of their two kids. I hung my head and kept my mouth shut.
I wanted to lead her by the hand to the raw chickens, tell her how to cut it up and broil it or bake it. Show her fresh vegetables, of which there were many nice ones in the store. I wanted to tell her how she could bake potatoes and even buy already put together salad greens. I wanted to tell her how to steam the vegetables in the microwave and they will taste good, and still be good for them. No extra salt. I bought an already cooked chicken to cheer myself up, a box of mixed salad greens, and a jar of popcorn. I couldn't bear to go back there for a few days.
I wonder...
But still, it's gone way downhill from them. Now even if you raise it yourself, it's GMO and classified as PESTICIDES by the FDA. So, this whole 'home grown' is still a myth. And what's in that soil? And what's in that water?
Go organic if you care about your family.
Also, people with more education are generally more likely to marry than people with less education. That is probably because they have a greater likelihood of getting work. Just because the parents of children are not married, doesn't mean they are not a family, and in fact they may be living together in one home.
The definition of family has changed over the last 40 years, and the rest of the people just have to catch up. That includes the people who write "studies".