Moms Underestimate Size of Youngest Child
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iStock/Thinkstock(MELBOURNE, Australia) — The youngest member of the family tends to get babied more than other kids but why does that happen?
Researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia point to something called the “baby illusion” in which mothers think of the youngest child as perhaps being smaller than they actually are.
Jordy Kaufman and his colleagues had moms guess the heights of various siblings and almost always, they would underestimate the height of the youngest child by an average of almost three inches.
Interestingly, whenever a new baby comes along, the “baby illusion” is broken and moms start to correctly guess the size of the older child.
Meanwhile, the illusion is responsible for parents devoting more time to the “baby” of the family, which is important when there are multiple kids to take care of.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio