Parenting is hard, period. But according to one study, three kids is the most stressful number of them all.
According to the mothers who raised us, three all at once is quite the juggling act.
In the study – it was found that compared to any other sized family – it was three children that cause the most stress, interestingly enough. If you are reading this and you are one of three — I think you owe your mother a call.
In a TODAYMoms.com survey that was held in April, surveyed 7,000 mothers all over the country.
Researchers then studied the mother’s stress levels as they related to the amount of children they had. And fascinatingly enough, stress levels do not exactly continue to rise as you add additional children to the family.
Mothers who have four children actually reported the least amount of stress and out of all the possible combinations of family numbers, they were the least stressed…
Maybe Kris Jenner actually does know what she is doing…
A blogging mom of three, Jill Smokler, shared with Today that she believes the results are true, saying:
“Going from one to two was an easy, breezy transition. Two to three, everything was turned upside down. I do not feel like I have it together. You only have two hands! Just crossing the street and not being able to physically hold all their hands I find tremendously stressful.”
Jill has a point about the whole two hands part. If God is a woman, she should really reconsider the next update come with at LEAST four hands.
Dr. Janet Taylor, a New York psychiatrist and mother-of-four, also shared her two cents — saying that stress levels may dip after the fourth child due to mothers learning to let go of control and giving their children space.
She says that this could be due to a mother not even having the time or the energy in their brain left to try and be a “perfect parent” while amongst her four-plus kids.
Dr. Taylor continued saying, “The more children you have, the more confident you become in your parenting abilities. You have to let go. And then you’re just thankful when they all get to school on time.”
It was also found in the survey that 60 percent of mothers said the feeling of having limited time to do everything your children need of you (plus, literally everything else) is the number one major stressor.
Non-shockingly, it was also found that 72 percent of mothers stress about how stressed they are too.
Parenting is not for the weak-willed.
And when it comes to gender, many parents have been reported to have a preconceived notion of what kind of child they would like to raise. Another fun discovery from the survey?
A whopping 60% of moms surveyed shared that it is less stressful to raise boys than girls.
And with everything going on today in our day and age, I understand why.
Here is to amazing mom’s raising amazing kids, no matter the number, the gender or amount of diapers. To all the mom’s out there: you run the world, you are the world’s first superhero and if your stressed-out-self was able to finish this article — someone definitely deserves a mommy juice box.
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