Strollerderby : upi

They Say: Moms, It's Still Your Fault. Well, Yours and Daycare

Madeline Holler — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:04:00 GMT

Worried that putting your kid in childcare will make her sick, dumb and mean? Add this to the pile of negatives: a new study claims to show early years spent in center-based daycare leads to stressed out life in the early teens.

Wait, wait. You pay extra for the high-quality, extra-certified, Italian-named, fun, fun, loving and fun daycare? Too bad. Doesn't matter. You farmed out the kid. She pays the price as a teen.

So is this good news for moms who stay home? Not exactly.

Because if you're insensitive -- mind you, insensitivity did not get defined -- you've also managed to stress out your kid whether or not he was in center-based daycare.

A brief write-up of the study from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development says researchers observed 1,000 children, ages one-month to mid-adolescence, in and out of their homes. They tested the awakening cortisol levels of the teens, which, when normal, are high in the morning and lower as the day goes on.

The kids who were in daycare and/or had crappy moms awoke with lower levels of cortisol and, therefore, were determined to be stressed.

My poor kids and their future stressed-out teens! They have not only been in various forms of center-based childcare (sometimes called "preschool"!), but their mother has been known to show an insensitive side when stressed, a condition that is clearly the result of her own childhood spent in center-based daycares. The cycle!

How Fertile Couples Outsmarted Wall Street

Top 10 Pregnancy and Birth World Records

Should Healthcare Reform Start in the Maternity Ward?

City's 5th Co-Sleeping Death in 10 Weeks Reported

550-Pound Woman Gives Birth

Issues! 'Parenting' Offers Fake Apology

Photo: truthdig.org

They Say: Kids Bad Liars, Excellent Deniers

Madeline Holler — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:07:00 GMT

In our house, it's a battle over brushing teeth.

"Honey, did you brush your teeth?" I ask.

"Yes ..." she answers.

"Go brush your teeth, now," I say. Liar, I mumble under my breath. And off she goes.

We're also in a hitting/pinching/ sticking-tongue-out-at-little-sister phase.

"Mom, she hit me," says little sister.

"Did you hit her?" I ask.

"Nooooo! I didn't hit her," answers the older one.

"OK. Find something else to do, you guys," says me, the big ol' gullible mom.

But there's good news! I'm not the only one. In fact, a new study shows that adults are pretty good at sniffing out lies that are reports of things that did not happen (unbrushed teeth, for example). But we're total suckers when it comes to false denials (hitting sister but claiming otherwise).

The dysfunction in my little family aside, these findings are important for researchers. Teasing apart the differences may make reported accounts of child abuse and court testimony more reliable.

From UPI:

"The large number of children coming into contact with the legal system -- mostly as a result of abuse cases -- has motivated intense scientific effort to understand children's true and false reports," study author Gail Goodman said in a statement. "Arguably even more important, however, are adults' abilities to evaluate children's reports."

"While accurately detecting false reports protects innocent people from false allegations, the failure to detect false denials could mean that adults fail to protect children who falsely deny actual victimization," Goodman said.

The research was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychology Association in Boston.

How Old Is Old Enough?

Photo: lostwackies.com

They Say: Spanking is the Gateway to Abuse

Madeline Holler — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:01:00 GMT

After unleashing a little whoop-ass on rampant corporal punishment in U.S. schools in an earlier post, I came across a report on a soon-to-be-released study about spanking within the home. Looks like moms who say they or their partners spank also tend to use other, harsher forms of physically abusive punishment on their children. Harsher forms include beating, burning, kicking, hitting with an object somewhere other than the buttocks, or shaking a child less than 2 years old.

Which is not to say every spanker goes this far. A good thing, too. Because while some surveys show a slight decline in the use of spanking as a form of discipline in the last 30 years, guess how many Americans report spanking their 3- to 5-year-old children at least once in a while:

90 percent! So now you know you're not the only one.

But lets look at these harsher punishments and the connection between them and spanking. Around 1,400 mothers in North and South Carolina were surveyed on the phone. Here's what they found (from UPI):

The study, published in the September American Journal of Preventive Medicine, said 45 percent of the mothers reported they or their partners had spanked their children in the previous 12 months, 25 percent reported spanking with an object on the buttocks and 4 percent reported using harsher forms of punishment.

"This study demonstrated that parents who report spanking children with an object and parents who frequently spank children are much more likely to report other harsh punishment acts consistent with physical abuse," Zolotor said in a statement.

Here's the upshot: nearly every parent has resorted to a thwack on the bottom at some point in their parenting history. Of those who didn't then want to collapse in a corner, rocking themselves through the waves of guilt and regret -- in other words, the ones who use the paddle/hand as a go-to discipline of choice, no prob -- they were more likely (though not guaranteed) to also have used a harsher forms of physical punishment (the burning, etc.).

So let's hear it: do you spank? Have you spanked? What do you think of this survey (just North and South Carolina? There's evidence that spanking is more accepted in the South ...). What about other people (teachers) spanking your kids?

Is it ever OK to hit your kids?

Should You Intervene When Strangers Hit Their Kids?

Photo: medicineworld.org