Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Tuesday, June 6, 2006
My mom made me fat
“Clean your plate or else!” and other authoritarian approaches to parenting can lead to overweight children, a new study finds.
Strict mothers were nearly five times more likely to raise tubby first-graders than mothers who treated their children with flexibility and respect while also setting clear rules.
Although the children of flexible, rule-setting moms mostly avoided obesity, the children of neglectful mothers and permissive mothers were twice as likely to get fat.
Sadly this Boston University study of childhood obesity relates strictly to young children and made no conclusions about how parenting affected weight later in life. So I guess I can’t blame my mom for my belt size.
But here’s my question. The Washington Post story excerpted above does not define what a “flexible but rule-setting” parenting style looks like. Seems a little like an oxymoron to me.
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