Why children behave '800 per cent' worse when their mum is around
There is an upside!
By Livia Gamble
March 12 2017
Have you ever wondered why children behave worse for their mum, as opposed to their father or teacher?
Don’t worry, you aren’t alone.
In fact, a study* published in 2015 found kids are "800 per cent worse" for their mothers.
The satirical study was published on the blog, Mum News Daily.
“What we found was that children as young as eight-months-old could be playing happily but upon seeing their mother enter a room were 99.9% more likely to begin crying, release their bowels, and need her immediate attention. Truly fascinating," the fake study said.
While the research is fake, the observations about child behaviour are very real for many families.
Writing about the topic on her Facebook page, blogger Constance Hall says she recently spoke to a professional about “what is really going” - and she has some good news for mums.
"Yes, on the surface kids become way more hard work when mums around," Hall writes.
There's a perfectly good reason for this. Basically, children have so many emotions swirling around inside them all day that they don't know what to do with them.
"They work so hard at being good because their strongest connection, most significant relationship isn't there to take care of their emotions with them," writes Hall.
"Enter Mum, the one person children see as a 'safe'. Someone who they can process and let go of all the things they have been working so hard at holding in while they weren't there."
Being around mum is also a good time to experiment with other behaviours, like biting their sibling.
“Holding that shit in is overwhelming," said Hall. “Which is kind of cute. Being their safe place, their bad arse behaviour comes out of love and not disrespect.”
*The study is satire
