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They Say: Kids Throw Up When Parents are Smart
More proof that we’re dooming our kids with every good thing we do: a new study shows the further parents went with their education, the more likely their daughters will develop an eating disorder.
So all those years of holding my head over the toilet can be blamed on my mother’s master’s degree?
Not exactly – the blame isn’t put on the parents. If anything, it’s further support of a long held belief that eating disorders have a higher incidence in upper and middle class families, where parents are more likely to have furthered their education. In non-white communities, in particular, studies have also shown the incidence of eating disorders increases with education.
More interesting: the researchers also found that the girls’ own success at school was often indicative of their trouble with anorexia or bulimia. As their grades increased, so did their risk.
Again, this follows previous research on eating disorders. Those of us who throw up or deny ourselves food have often been described as more driven than classmates, with a stress on success. There’s a tendency to be competitive and to judge oneself based upon exacting (and often impossible) standards.
Put that in terms of grades, and it sounds like a positive thing. Competitive kids push themselves to get good grades, get into a good college.
Put it in terms of losing weight, and it’s anything but. Competitive kids push themselves to not eat for a full day, then a full two days. Or they (we) push themselves to throw up just a little bit more.
Should parents blame themselves on this one? As someone who’s been there, done that, no, I can’t blame my mother’s master’s degree for pushing myself to get into a good college OR to throw up nightly. But if there’s ever a sign staring you in the face that you need to pay extra attention to your kid’s well-being, here you go. Just because they’re smart in the head doesn’t mean they’re smart in the heart.
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0 Comments
GP commented on Sep 23 09 at 11:43 amy’all have GOT to stop with these ridiculous headlines!
mommiedear commented on Sep 25 09 at 9:47 amI agree with the theory. Because expectations are higher and so is the stress to achieve. I disagree with the generalization. My parents are both doctors in theory I should have been stress out and sick or embraced the stress. Well I did neither. I was a high achiever myself but in the arts not science. I made good grades and a full scholarship and I work hard at the things I am good at. But I never felt the need to throw up or take on any unhealthy habits maybe because I did have an inside knowledge of what was medically sound and not but my husband and I are both type A personalities and we don’t pressure our daughter to be anything but what she is. So in short it has everything to do with how we raise our kids and not about the financial or cerebral acumen. On http://www.truuconfessions.com moms have found a very comfortable place to confess their healthy and unhealthy habits including the body section which gives everyone an insight into what is healthy or not.
mystic_eye commented on Feb 11 10 at 12:09 amAren’t anorexia and bulemia classified more as anxiety disorders like OCD? I’m reasonably sure that eating disorders are generally about feeling in control of ones life not appearance or self-esteem.
I think it could be that higher income brackets are better at hiding problems from their kids. So it seems as if their parents are “in control” of everything in life when that is clearly never the case.
Tanya commented on Mar 26 10 at 12:07 amI clicked on the headline hoping to find an upside to my infant son’s spitting-up all the time. So not what I was expecting…
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