Moms' Stress Can Lead to Fat Children: Study

Kids stress us out—but we still find them rewarding

(NEWSER) - Ask parents if their children make them happy and they’ll likely say yes. So why does almost every study on the subject show that having children tends to make people less happy—and that, in fact, many parents love their kids but hate parenting? In an extensive New York article , Jennifer Senior explores how parenting, and Americans’ reasons for having children, have changed over the decades. More»

New fuel for mommy wars

(NEWSER) - Teenagers who spent long hours in day-care as toddlers are more likely to take risks and act impulsively than peers who spent those years at home, finds the largest and longest study of child-care in America. The findings—sure to stir controversy among parents and policy makers—found that teens rated themselves 16% more impulsive for every extra 10 hours they spent per week in day-care as toddlers. More»

Broad study finds children of all ages more likely to struggle

(NEWSER) - Kids whose parents are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan struggle with their emotions and responsibilities far more than children of civilians, a large new study reveals. Children of service members were twice as likely to report anxiety, emotional problems, and other symptoms of stress than their civilian counterparts. "Kids were reporting taking on more household responsibilities, such as taking care of siblings, and feeling like they were missing school activities," a researcher tells HealthDay News . More»

(NEWSER) - The latest trend in nomenclature rings false to at least one person who recently realized that "Mom" has become "the now generic name for every female parent in our country." Thinking it over, Anne Albeck dates the phenomenon to the early '90s, but familiarity—and overfamiliarity—really does breed contempt. "Being called Mom by everyone from the shoe store clerk to the pediatrician is a little too intimate for me," Albeck writes for the Chicago Tribune. More»

Think before offering 'constructive criticism,' then ... keep it to yourself: Warner

(NEWSER) - The maternal resentment has evidently been building up for a while, and New York Times blogger Judith Warner is letting loose. She recounts slights perpetrated against her and her friends and wonders: "Why do people so often permit themselves to dump—verbally, emotionally, with a surgically precise ability to wound viscerally—on mothers? And why do we put up with it? " More»