Babies and their parents are actually changing each other in a multitude of ways.
First, BBC News reported that by offering kids vegetables from an early age, toddlers are unlikely to have negative attitudes.
A new study by the University of Leeds found that when kids are offered vegetables at “before the age of 2,” they are likely to be open to trying new kinds of veggies, BBC reported.
“The study also dispelled the popular myth that vegetable tastes need to be masked in order for children to eat them,” according to BBC.
So, that’s cool. Your kid will be OK with eating veggies. But there’s something that parents, and even students, can learn from babies.
A school in Washington, D.C., for example, is bringing babies into the classroom to teach students about empathy, The Washington Post reported.
“I think it’s really changed people in our class,” said student Vivian Dougherty to The Post. “It’s really made people nicer.”
A baby changing the emotions and lifestyle of a person isn’t unheard of. The Los Angeles Times reported on Monday that a man’s brain can change when taking care of a baby. While women are often developing skills to help raise a kid, men, too, can learn a lot of these crafts.
“Parenting a small child requires the forethought of a crisis planner, the reflexes of a professional goalkeeper, the energy of a cheerleader and the empathy of a therapist,” wrote Melissa Healy for The L.A. Times. “[A] new study finds that the more he cares for his offspring, the more a father's brain looks and behaves like that of a mother engaged in the everyday care of a child.”
But babies can learn and gain a lot from their dads, too.
Dads who work around the house — doing laundry and completing general housework — actually have a tremendous impact on their daughters, wrote Andy Hinds for The Daily Beast.
In fact, many daughters of house-working dads tend to be more ambitious when it comes to finding a career, Hinds wrote.
“What my daughters see me doing most of the time — the part they can wrap their heads around — is childcare and housework,” he wrote. “According to research from the University of British Columbia, the effect of seeing me thus occupied should be empowering to them in terms of their career aspirations.”
Hinds wrote that this recent study should be a notification for parents to embrace their kids’ career aspirations. It doesn’t matter what they learn from Mom or Dad, but just that they are doing what they want to do, Hinds wrote.
“So if my daughters want to be teachers or stay-at-home moms (or carpenters), I will be delighted that they followed in my meandering footsteps,” he wrote. “But if they want to bring the values that we share as a family into their jobs as CEOs or military commanders, I will be equally proud.”
Email: hscribner@deseretdigital.com
Twitter: @herbscribner
